Amedikallu - An early monsoon trek…

It was the first week of July’10 and I was held up with a little extra work on hands. But as always, ‘The woods were calling…’ I happened to have a random check on the BMC website and found an unseen name – Amedikallu. I was not sure of a 2 day trek initially and had almost decided for a night trek on a Saturday. But eventually I could not avoid the desire to be amidst the Western Ghats. Amedikallu through BMC on the 3^rd and 4^th of July it was!

Amedikallu is a part of the thick shola forest range offered by the Charmadi Ghat section of the Western Ghats. Amedikallu has a huge monolith at the top which appears like a giant turtle and 3 huge stones which give an appearance of a stove. This peak is surrounded by many other important peaks of Western Ghats. It is considered to be one of the toughest in Karnataka and is a two day trek if one wants to make it to the peak comfortably.

All set to go, I got a call at 10:15PM on the 2^nd of July. Kiran, our super enthusiastic trek coordinator from BMC had a quick check with me on the people waiting to board the Swaraj Mazda. After a small round of introduction, we took off from the city life that night and after a super bumpy drive, we arrived at the home stay at Arasinamakki near Dharmasthala (http://streamofjoy.com). It is very simple to reach there. You can catch local buses also to reach this place. The route is (from Bangalore - 260 KM): Hassan- Sakleshpur- Gundya- Enjira (take right diversion here)- Arasiamakki. You can always contact Mr.Kashinath ( 09343206307, 08251-268225 or 09845088088) for any details of it. I can fill this blog by describing the home stay alone, but the best part which I found to be really worth is sitting on the banks of the Kapila river flowing next to the huts where we were staying.

It took us only 30 minutes to freshen up as most of us decided not to take bath that day (provided that it will rain anyway during the trek; else you will anyway sweat). This is the best part of a trek for me where you don’t give a damn about anything else! Nevertheless after a little round of loitering around and an early morning photography, it was time for nice hot ‘taTTe Idlis’ (Plate Idlis - A South Indian dish usually consumed during breakfast or as an evening snack) and amazing ‘Coconut Chutney’. We then packed our lunch and set out for the trek. The 10 of us, Saikat (the guy who can eat anything for existence), Abhijit (he looked like a nerd initially ;)), Sudhansu (the odIya babu), Pradeep (the to be IITK grad), Kiran (the tiger), Sekhar (the Chennai musketeer), Guru (the silent killer), Animesh (Animation though :D), Deepika (the joyous lon(v)ely lady) and myself were accompanied by the trek coordinator Kiran and a local guide.

It was a pretty decent start at 8:30 in the morning. One usually needs to go through the shola forest range to reach the peaks at the Western Ghats. Though we knew that leeches will be there, we were not much bothered about it until we saw them climbing our shoes. Then came the series of ‘S**ts’ and ‘F**ks’ from all of us. The forests were so damp that there were leeches falling from the wet trees, every few steps we took, we were assured of shaking legs with one leech atleast… But after a while, we got used to it and we had mastered the art of plucking them away without salt or fire.

After we crossed the forest range, the contact with the leeches came down and we were amidst the elephant leaf filled grasslands. Since it was early monsoons, the height of the grass was not much. But if a five footer visits the place post monsoons, the group will surely have a tough time locating him! The grass was sharp enough to cut your skin upon application of a little pressure. Around 12 noon we halted to have a quick lunch. After the lunch, 8 of us decided to move ahead and the remaining 4 stayed back. After climbing some distance, myself and Guru decided to stay back as the rocks were really slippery and we took a call to halt there for a while and join the group of 4 in sometime. I would love to visit the place one day to complete it though!

The wait for the 6 of them who had gone ahead almost to the summit was looking like never ending. The weather became tough. Rains, mist and breeze looked to be a deadly combo offer by the Mother Nature. A little bit of internal heat generation via ‘Pranayam’ helped me to stay without a jacket here. I realized the importance of keeping your body metabolism intact. Later we decided to descend before the others returned. As we were returning, we heard the voices of the rest of the people. So, the group of 12 again started to climb down. Except for a few places of only grass, we were able to figure out the way. A few of us decided to literally run through the forest range as we were not ready to treat the leeches after the rains. This was another amazing event where I found myself running alone amidst the thick forest range. We had the pre-historic communicators (via quick shouts) to ensure that all of us are heading the same way.

Finally, at 4 PM, we were back to the place where we started from just to discover that a few leeches are there inside our shoes! After a quick cleanup, we left to the home stay where hot ‘Mangalore bajjis’ (A Mangalore special evening savory) was waiting for us! A good round of talk and dinner saw us through the time before we slept peacefully.

‘Get us guys!’ was the call at sharp 6:30AM in the morning. It was Deepika waking us all up in the morning to ensure that the next day’s itenary is not affected. ‘is badmaash ko flush out karo!’ was the next set of phrase I remember where Abhijit and Animesh were on a mission to kill the leeches inside the room! Before we set out for the day’s activities we had a very good breakfast of Dosas where Mr.Kashinath informed me that the previous night a snake just went behind me while I was having dinner. I was like damn, I missed it again. Till date I have not seen a snake in its natural habitat…

A quick visit to the Shishileshwara temple (Fish temple) and the lovely stream of the kapila river leading to Dharmasthala made our morning on the day 2. We left for the day heading out to the city thinking that the activities are done for two days. But the TT driver proved us to be wrong when a Tata Sumo banged the bumper in the heavy traffic of Bangalore. A 20 minute negotiation and we were done with it. It was time for me to take leave from this amazing set of people with whom I had another memorable weekend!

Cheers,

Shreyas

koDri aNNa Road Tax!

It was a Friday and I was on my way back home from college. It was the end of another hot week at Bangalore as there was absolutely no rain during the week. Unfortunately, I encountered a red signal at the signal near the old Family mart (Junction connecting Kanakpura road with the ring road). It was for me to sight a few eunuchs on the other side of the road. It in fact is a very normal sight for Bangaloreans off late to find them at signals across the city. So, I was not surprised to see one. The fact which took me by awe was the person mentioning the word “Road Tax”! The person near the vehicle and uttered “koDri aNNa Road Tax!” (Give me the Road Tax brother…). Now this was something new!

I was easily able to relate the person’s words with the way we deal with the market. Since I have been involved with the marketing world since more than an year now, it made a lot of sense to me. The way authentic words are abused in the management world is exactly what I was referring to. ‘Strategy’, ‘Synergy’, ‘Depends’, ‘Let’s see’ and many more are used just in the same way. Well, at the end of the day the person was trying to market an intangible value through which a perceived value from the prospective customers could be bought.

Putting myself in a marketer’s shoe let me see the other side of the coin. Well it is really important as a marketer for one to use well knitted gloves in this heavy weight competition! When there are thousand people around exploiting the economic situation to get some bucks in their pocket, it makes sense to get atleast the left out; in which case a company will be forced to knit its offerings very well by exploiting the words which are there at the offerings to get used up!

Looking at the incident from the perspective of a social being, I was sad and at the same time angry with the situation. Frankly speaking, the community of eunuchs started agitations long back when there was not much equality displayed in the society. They were treated as untouchables and were dying to find a decent life (the case is not much different these days either)! This is where this collection of ‘chanda’ started by the eunuch community in order to exists with the ever increasing costs of the economy. But another community of opportunists took advantage of the situation. Most of the so called eunuchs today are from the community of opportunists and it’s very sad to see the state of people utilizing their gender to earn bucks for a living! Hope the people who are responsible for the steady arousal of the community realize the importance to work on the turn-around! Hope to see a day when I don’t have to encounter anybody requesting “koDri ANNa Road Tax!”

DSS for Human Neural Network

Neither have I worked on the Neural Networks domain nor do I know the way a Decision Support System (DSS) is developed. I am still taking the liberty of linking these two concepts together to make some sense out of utilizing the concept of neural networks for developing a DSS for the human species. This concept has already been researched upon quite a bit and there are experts who have worked on developing such applications. The existence of robotics as a domain is a proof for improvements done at the end of putting intelligence into entities so that they act as humans responding to the various situations and with the emergence of Emotional Intelligence, the concept of feel also has been put into the entities; thus bringing life into the otherwise dead silicon dioxide.

The concept talked about in this particular excerpt is more in lines of enabling the human species to enact in a pre-programmed way. The whole concept of the movie Matrix was based on the concept of introducing smart chips into the human body; thus making the body to react in a pre-defined way. This is the whole concept of embedding a DSS into a human body. Though this concept wasn’t new, I had never given it a serious thought in the technical terms.

It was a cold night that day when I was having a well directed discussion with one of my close friends about decision making for life ahead. After a fun filled but serious discussion, it was time for me to get back home. This whole thought of DSS for HNN was running through my mind on the way back home. If there is a decision system imbibed in the human body which would be linked with a psychological parameter of the individual (which makes it individualistic and hence customized to the degree N), then the requirement for defining the word confusion in a dictionary will be out of question. This helps us to get rid of the whole set of requirement for a business vertical of counseling.

This system can be integrated with external factors indicating the market imperatives, past experience processing, best practices etc. The whole integration mechanism would make the decision to be smarter in terms of considering all the parameters before taking a final decision. It would also lead to developing a predictive model based on the feedback mechanism. The whole control system thus developed would work with a proper feedback mechanism thus increasing the scope for a continuous improvement. This would help in taking the best decision. Though this is not a new concept, just thought of sharing the thought process…

While discussing this concept with one of my friends, a thought of human touch was shared. Yes, I agree to that point that whatever automation we do, how many ever process we may skip to save money, one can never replace the human touch...

Top class!

No! It is not about Sachin Tendulkar! :). Neither is it about the other N number of achievers the world has seen till now.

It was an odd day at office and I was just browsing through one of my friends’ blogs. He had a very interesting write on the perception of the bottom of the pyramid on the top (specifically about their Project Managers). This triggered my senses and I came across the principle Dr. Laurence J. Peter has put in front of the world (For details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle). Just to brief it up – “It holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions.”

A thought was running at the back of my mind. To my surprise, I was actually was able to relate to whatever I was seeing in my professional life! Especially in a country like India, the professionals expect a faster growth when compared to other nations. People thrive to get into a mode of “not working” early in their careers. The perception of the ground level jobs turns ugly! This is to some extent true to the other western countries as well. But the advantage there is the work culture which doesn’t restrict a person to always stick on to the stream he/she initially chooses to be with. Hence, one can find a person on the top having a good number of years of experience before reaching there. This is not the case with India though.

Especially in SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises), the growth potential is very high as the employees count in the organization is limited. It is a very valid argument that if one is capable; he/she will definitely get opportunities to grow. But, the parameter of industry standards doesn’t play a factor here. This puts the person who grows fast in a very uncomfortable situation. He/she will neither find a suitable place to switch nor will they be able to continue their jobs (thanks to the limited hierarchy in the SMEs). So, the only option left is to grow horizontally after they reach a certain level (provided there is scope for that).

Coming back to the Peters principle, these guys who grow big initially are forced to stick-on due to situational factors. Though they are incompetent (a few of them), the insecurity factors forces them to stay at the position they are in. This has adverse effect on both the organization as well as the individual. It is growth imperative for both of them. This is when the term “politics” plays a very important role in the organization. The people at the top who do not deserve to be there will have to stay back. Hence they find reasons in others who impair their stay. Though they sweetly term it as loyalty, in many cases the reason behind it is the fact that they are not competent enough to be accepted by the market. They would have become the big daddies of the organization and hence will have their own say.

There is also a ripple effect seen in the SMEs. In the name of exposure, the people at the top pass the work to the people below them. At times it will be more of a “delivery act” unlike a mutual agreement. The people at the bottom are again made to go through the same where they are not fit to face the market.

This was definitely not written out of frustration, but just a thought process as an output of my own experience in the professional world. After getting a hang of the problem, let me just throw some light on the solution to this as well. Again this is another thought which went by and not a proven methodology.

The concept of grooming individuals is definitely good! But, as a responsible top management, one has to identify the person who has to be groomed. For this, the first step is to identify the top notch who should be involved in this process of grooming. This has to be a top down approach coupled with a few external factors like HR interfacing and feedback from the bottom. The top need not be restricted to the PMO. It is definitely an advantage if the grooming individual is the person whom one is immediately reporting. This will not be the case always. Hence a process has to be designed for the implementation of the entire concept.

Upon the formation of the top notch, the bottom has to be hand-picked with consideration of various parameters. There has to be enough space created for the hand-picked individuals to perform. This stage should provide a controlled freedom and an environment of mentor-ship has to be created. This has to be coupled with a proper growth path for the individual who is being groomed (this is why interfacing with the HR team makes sense). This will ensure that proper leaders are built within the organization and helps in reduction of ego once they reach the top.

A very valid comment here is – “What if this individual being groomed quits the organization one day?” Well, this case will depend on the person who has been picked. A matured, growth oriented professional will never do that :).

The Intricacies of a Lead

It was late November 2008 and confused soul was walking around the Sona Towers building wondering what should be his next step. Yes, it was me who was just then given a choice of heading a team in Technical Line 2 Support. Prior to this I had taken up a few responsibilities and probably lived up to the expectations of whoever was observing me. Finally I decided to plung into the offer and accepted the role to lead a team of 5 members. I agree I was a little lucky to have been offered such a role at the begining of my career. My then manager probably liked to take calculated risks and tough decisions.

Initially it was a 5 member team of all guys. It is equally easy and difficult to manage an all guys team! There was a lot of learning which had to take place as I had not formally lead a team before. Also, there was a requirement of a sixth member in the team as five people managing the show was pretty difficult at the initial stages. Hence I decided to be a part of one of the small teams. So it was now a dual role for me where I had to perform and also see the bigger picture of things and also be responsible enough so that the team can look up to me as a lead.

It was always a belief for me to develop a team informally. Things had to be professional wherever required; but at the same time, it had to be working in a mode where the team members do not have any barriers while operating. To take out this barrier, the environment created in the team is very important. I was lucky enough to have 5 good folks with me who knew each other from before. This informality had to be brought between me and the team as well since the environment was dependant on me also. Since I had worked with a few of them and knew the others, it did not take too much of a time for me to bring this in the team. Also the fact that I had decided to operate in a mode where I was working along with them did make a difference here as they felt me as one among them. The next hurdle was the knowledge in the team. Though we had worked on one of the systems under us, we as a team did not have so much of an in-depth knowledge for operating as a full fludge Level 2 support team. We had to build this knowledge with the help of the relevant people and ofcourse through self-analysis. This lead us to a very long journey where every single ticket was a new discovery. I should thank my team and the onshore co-ordinators for having patience to really learn through the job. It was a very good team effort displayed!

There were many more challenges ahead for us. The hierarchial structure of support operations changed at this point of time and we had to report to a new manager. The entire setup had to be changed. For me as a lead, it was important to make sure that the work is not affected and things went on as they were. At this point of time, I decided to be the face of the team to the manager so that atleast micro-management need not be done. It worked out this way and the new manager was encouraging enough to let us operate in the way we wanted. After this re-structuring, I took a whole new role. Though I continued with whatever I was doing before, I started to operate as a contributor to the entire support operational team apart from my own team. Here again I need to thank my team as my involvement within the team had reduced to some extent as I was concentrating more on setting up processes, operations and other essentials of a bigger team. I along with a few others really went off the way to setup things in the new team. It was more like setting up operations for a mini-organization where we had to consider all the parameters involved in operating as an organization.

I, at this point of time had moved into a role of an on the job learner and I sincerely thank my manager for having given me oppurtunities where I was able to implement the ideas which I had in mind. It was a point of time where we were working in a India and UK shift. So it was almost 5 extra hours put in work every single day. We did not mind doing it as the work was so exciting that we were self-driven. Then came the challenge of attrition in the team. It was a big challenge for we as a team to handle it as we did not want the routine to be affected due to this. To minimize the risk I had to negotiate for a new resource in the team who had already had the system knowledge. I felt it was more proper that way as itsaved us a lot of time and we can get into a BAU mode very quickly. Luckily for me, there were people available with the pre-requisites I had. Also, the other team members responded positively. So, the business went on as usual again!

At this point of time, the hierarchial structure changed again and I wanted to operate in the same way (again it was my concern that the team should not be affected by whoever there manager is). It was for a simple reason that if they feel the difference, the deliverables may be affected. Also due to this change in hierarchy, I had to take a larger role to manage 13 people now. It was a call which I had to make as I had to again enter into areas where I do not have a clue about. I finally decided to take it up. Afterall 'Spiderman bhi toh risk leta hai!' :) ...

A new journey of learning started for me. By this time, the processes were almost in place for the entire operations. So, I did not have to bother so much about it. Hence I started concentrating more on the team. With the bigger team on hand, I realised the importance of a few behavioral factors to be present in the team. With a support kind of a setup, Trust plays a very important role in the team. Since, the interaction to some extent happens directly to the customers, one needs to just trust the team members. This is not so important when one leads a technical team. Team dynamics play a very important role here. I did fail at places where technical solutions had to be given, but I felt there were people who can do that in a better way. But yes, it would have been better if I had the technical competancy to a good level as well! I don't really have to concentrate on that. Hence I started concentrating on grooming the people in the team where they can grow to a level where they can handle issues and people by themselves. My belief had now shifted to a team of high performers. Also, I had my own selfishness of my career path in it as I had to move out of the team for realising my dreams else where. (I am being frank with you all today, so please don't take it the other way :) ... ). So, if the team is self-reliant, it does not make much of a difference if the lead is present or not. My belief at this point of time had shifted to a mode which said "A team is performing at its best when a lead is not required!"

To my luck again, I had to move onshore for a short assignment. I did not want a replacement for me now as I had decided to groom the team. I spread my responsibilities to the team members and again, I thank my manager for letting me take this risk and ofcourse my team who accepted it as a challenge and took it up very positively. I also had another challenge at onshore. Apart from my normal work, I had quite a few tasks. So, I was not able to concentrate much on the team. Kudos to each of them in the team for having displayed a great show at this point of time! After my return from onshore, things were as usual and I returned to my role. But at this point of time, I had decided to move out of my role. It was more of a personal aspiration which I had decided to run behind. After a good round of KT to the new lead, I moved out of the team. There were few more things which were pending from my end as well. There were a few on-going issues in the team which had to be dealt. But, I decided to move-on as issues will always be there and one needs to just tackle it as and how they come :).

It was a very good journey of learning for 16 months for me. Thanks to all the people who were a part of my journey and gave me confidence, encouragement and space to explore.

Cheers,
Shreyas

The Transition…

The Transition…

It 2:30PM on the 5^th of February 2010; I was busy restructuring the team at office for a new cost-effective way of working. Anand Sawkar was waiting for me patiently. We had a flight to catch at 6PM to the national capital, Delhi. I wrapped up the presentation and we were off to Mekhri circle to catch a bus to BIAL. We reached a little early and checked in before time. The plane tickets were booked by Anand around 2 months back. Hence it worked out cheap for us. Upon reaching the Delhi airport, we took a cab from there to reach the Nizhamuddin train station. Anand had booked a train from there to Dehradun. We had a not so quick dinner as we had ample time with us before the arrival of the train. At 12AM we were finally on our way to Dehradun to attend a Punjabi wedding of our colleague. With a lot of noise from the group which were traveling with us to Dehradun, we were able catch a good sleep of around 4-5 hrs. We arrived at Gundeep’s place at around 6:30AM on 6^th Feb. Then began our journey of attending a Punjabi wedding!!

Dehradun is a pretty old hill station of India residing in the Madhya Himalaya (Himachal) Range of the Himalayas. It exists from the time of the East India Company. Education is the main industry in this wonderful city of hills. Hence it can be considered as a recession proof market of India! In and around Dehradun, one can find many schools and colleges even today.

The functions had started 2 days back. We had missed the ‘Mehndi’ where the girls in the marriage beautify their hands with designs. Gundeep patiently explained both of us the various functions and the rituals of a Punjabi wedding. Things went above our head though! This was a day prior to the marriage. There is a ritual called “Maili” among the Punjabis where the bride is not expected to take bath and to be in old clothes. This is basically to make her look more beautiful on the day of wedding.

The rest of the morning of 6^th went in me and Anand loafing around Dehradun and passing some time and preparing ourselves for the long night and the really tiring days coming ahead. It was a very good view of Massourie from the terrace of the house. We then discovered the tiny Tibetian settlement in Dehradun. Then a little time pass here and there made it lunch time. It was time for more timepass and this time Ramandeep (Gundeep’s cousin) joined us too. We then understood the essence of the Punjabis. The talk with him was very valuable to us as it told a lot about the way of living of the Punjabis. A little insight on the opportunities created in the world was also discussed as general topics.

The Punjabis don’t have a specific time for marriage functions as such. As and how things go well, they decide to get married. Only the day of the marriage is fixed. The time is at their stake and it is their responsibility to complete the functions before the day ends. They are also very “Dildaar”. They are passionate about life and very helpful from within. They also have this great character of making sure that the guests are given utmost importance. It is come with their culture and their way of living.

A few of them to share – Gundeep’s bro (Ashu) was passionate about capturing moments and posing in front of the camera. Ramandeep’s friend was passionate about riding a bullet with an empty number plate on it. His comment was “The max I have to pay is a 100 buck; which makes it 3000 per month. But I am atleast satisfied by doing it!” Phew!! It looks weird though, but I felt that people of this kind of passion will only make a difference at the end of the day.

It was then the time for a few rituals before the cocktail party. Not sure about the name of them though. People from the groom’s family came to the brides’ place and gift exchange happens. After they leave, the bride is made to wear a sacred thread around her hand. The bridge’s mother then has to cross over the wooden slab on which the bride sat during the ceremony. ‘Prasad’ is later distributed among the women. All these rituals are an integral part of a Punjabi wedding where a great display of relationship bonding is made.

The next ritual was to get sacred water from the Gurudwara. Since the bride wouldn’t have taken bath on the previous day, the next day, she is expected to take bath in the sacred water brought from the Gurudwara by her sister-in-law.

The 3Ds – Dance, Dhol and Daaru are the essentials of any Punjabi wedding. Every small function has to have dance associated with it. The people don’t mind doing it as it is the way they are brought up.

Then was the ceremony where all the people in the Bride’s family made the Bride wear a pair of ‘Chudian’ (bangles – one red and the other green). ‘Sangeet’ (Punjabi folk songs) followed this ceremony. Here again the energy of the Punjabis is much appreciable. All of them were completely involved in all the celebrations with utmost display of enthusiasm. Post Sangeet was the cocktail party and dance floor was open. It was fun dancing with people who were filled with energy even at 11 in the night! There of course was a dual course of dinner in between to entertain our stomach! The first day of the marriage came to end finally at around 12AM. I and Anand went to a good soundless sleep knowing that many such tiring days are awaiting us!

I woke up early in the morning on the next day. Anand was still fast asleep and I guess was still digesting the heavy dinner! I heard noises outside as soon as I woke up. There was one more ceremony going on. I couldn’t attend it though. It was a ceremony where the bride is made to wear the auspicious bangle which she has to wear it for the rest of her life. But I later discovered that due to changing trends and modernization, a new rule has been put in place where the bride is expected to wear the bangle for a minimum of 41 days. After a quick round of breakfast, it was time for us to leave to the marriage hall where another ritual – “Milni” was organized.

There was a huge noise of a band approaching the marriage hall. I and Anand went near the band to discover that they were from the groom’s side. The Bride’s relatives waited patiently for around 30 mins to receive the groom’s relatives. This act of the groom’s side meeting the bride’s side is called Milni. Here, the equals in the family tree of each side exchange garland and gifts. The groom’s side then approached the entrance of the marriage hall. All the people of the Bride’s side try and stop the people entering by demanding money in exchange of them entering the hall. After a good round of negotiation, the groom’s relatives were let inside the marriage hall. This is when the breakfast was arranged for all. Food is one thing which you don’t have to worry about in a Punjabi wedding. You will be fed and made to drink enough for your life!

There was a round of photo session in the marriage hall. Balli, the groom had a royal entry with his ‘kirpaan.’ Kirpaan is the sword which a Sardar is very proud to own. It is a symbol of victory and pride. The bride was completely decked up. The entry of a bride to the stage wass no less than a ‘Maharani’s walk’ to the throne! The guy received his to be maid with utmost respect. The photo session continues…

The entire concentration then shifted to the Gurudwara. This is where the marriage took place. The marriage began with welcoming both the sides. The guy’s side settled down first; Then the bride’s side. A ritual of ‘kanya dhaan’ in which the bride’s father officially hands the responsibility of the bride into the hands of the groom was carried on. There are four ‘pheras’ around the sacred place in the Gurudwara. The guru reads the granth in the due course of the four pheras. Then they are officially declared as married. This whole act of the marriage was sentimental. I could see the real emotions in the bride’s eyes where she burst out with a thought of leaving her parents officially.

The scene then shifted back to the marriage hall where a round of lunch was awaiting our ever hungry stomach. After a good round of food, it was time for ‘vidai.’ The bride then officially is out of the family and enters a new home to light it up! This again is a highly emotional scene where the bride throws ‘chaval’ (rice) backwards from her hands over her head without turning back and walks out of the house. She is then driven away to the groom’s house and will be received with due respect.

By the time all these rituals got over it was 6 in the evening. We were asked to take 2 hours of rest and gear up for the reception given from the guys’ side. It was in a different hall. That night there were drizzles and we were waiting inside the car waiting for Gundeep’s relatives from Saharanpur to show them the route to the hall. We went into a conversation with Vinod, the servant at Gundeep’s place about Garhwal, Vinod’s home town. Garhwal is a beautiful place even today as it has not been very much explored by the Indians apart from a few foreigners (thanks to ‘Lonely Planet’) and the locals.

We finally entered the marriage hall at 10:30 in the night. The music in the party hall goes on till only 10 in the night due to the government rule. There was a last round of meet with all the wonderful people and we went back home for sleeping pretty early. After a fun packed 2 day wedding at Dehradun, the eyes closed with a good memory of the wedding and a new hope of meeting new people with new adventures the next day…

We woke up early in the morning on the 8^th of February. Gundeep’s dad drove us to a bus stop where we get buses to Rishikesh. Yes, we were heading to Rishikesh for a fun filled rafting experience. Anand had again booked the package online at Garhwal Himalayan White water rafting. They are into rafting and other adventure sports for more than 15 years now! We reached Rishikesh at around 9 in the morning. We had to reach Rashi’s place (another colleague of ours). Puneet Agarwal had also joined us at the bus stop in Dehradun. The three of us were seated at different places I the local bus to Rishikesh. An hours’ drive and we were at Rashi’s place near IDPL. We spoke to her parents, placed our baggages at her place and rushed to Muni ki Reti in Rishikesh. This is where the rafting office was located. To our bad luck, none of the ATMs were working there on that day. But we had paid 70% of the amount online. So, a little bargaining and we had enough cash with us to carry-on till the end of rafting.

The jeep took us through the roads that were made by cutting down the mountains. It was almost a 30 min drive from Muni ki Reti. I saw the sacred Ganges for the first time in my life. What a sight it was. Greenish water amidst the mountain range, terrace farming on the mountains, the small settlements on the banks of the river and on the hill tops. The whole sight of this new world made me numb. I had no words to describe it. All I was doing was to stare outside the window to catch even the slightest sight of Ganges. Then came the place where we had to stay for more than 24 hours. We had taken a 1.5 day package inclusive of food. The welcome was with a small climb down the mountain to reach the base camp. It was on the banks of the Ganges. Covered with white sand and the flowing river water!

There were no appointments, no to-do lists, nothing to do apart from photography and a bit of talking. More important than all, there was no mobile signal! The moment I saw that, the whole expression on my face turned to that of a complete rejoice. As though, I had gone to an ideal place. I just lost myself in the lap of Mother Nature. The two days of marriage rush had made us very tired. But, the moment we entered this awesome place, all our tiredness went in the air; as though someone has done a magical spell to drive it away!

After a quick round of photography session, we went for breakfast and were asked to assemble near the entrance once we get ready for the first days’ rafting. I had done kayaking before, hence had a basic idea of how to row and float in case of anything. We had to start our rafting from Marine drive which is around 27kms from Rishikesh and around 20kms from our base camp. On the way to Marine drive, we had to collect our rafting equipments from Snow Leopard Pvt. Ltd. All the equipments were imported from US. Each raft was worth more than 3-4 lakh INR!

We came to the starting point of the rafting session. Rana was our guide for the day. Apart from him, there were two more of them Dharmesh and Ashok. After a quick round of introduction and a 15 min practice, we were all set for the raft! We were covering only 10kms on the first day as there was a trek planned for us as well. We went through the rapids hitting them as though they were our enemies. Well, they actually were our enemies at that point of time; simply because, if we didn’t hit them they would have hit us to death! After a series of level 2 rapids, we were now pretty confident about rafting. Next were the level 3 rapids. The waves were very calm until we went near them. The moment we entered, we were sucked inside as though we have touched a picture plant! There was one thing our guide told us – “Stronger the waves, stronger you hit them.” Hence before entering any rapid, we were increasing the speed of our raft. We were also given instructions to hit the rapid with the front of the raft towards the rapid. All these instructions were actually helpful to me and Anand as we were sitting in the front facing the waves. After crossing the 10-15 feet high waves at the level 3 rapid, there was a sense of achievement that I could feel within. The real Shreyas started to roar I guess!!

After a good 10km rafting session, we had a home made authentic north Indian lunch. From there we went for a trek to Neer Water Fall. It was also nearby. It was a 10 min drive to the base of the trek from our camp. It was ages since I had trekked. Hence I was all excited for the trek. There is a village towards the top of this hill by name Neer. Hence the waterfall is also named after the village. The government of India has made proper places to rest in the due course of the trek. There are seats all the way to the top. There are picnic spots done as well!

We were not able to reach the top as it was getting dark and the weather was also getting bad. We reached an area where the Indian government had built a bridge for the villagers to cross daily. Must say, it was one of the most amazing spots I have ever seen! Even though I have seen many hidden waterfalls, there was a difference in this waterfall. It was made of the same glacier as the Ganges. It shared the source with the Ganges and ultimately joined the Ganges. We were thrilled to see the natural beauty. I along with the guide Theku went a little further as Anand and Puneet were a little slow in climbing. I needed perfect spots for my shots. But I seriously missed my tripod this time around.

After a good photography session I continued my walk with Theku. He was from Nepal which was a 2 day drive by bus. He had learnt rafting while young and had come to Rishikesh in search of a job. Since his core competencies matched, he joined this adventure club. We were then discussing about the beauty of Nepal and the unexplored places in Nepal. Since my interest is also traveling and trekking, our talks just went by till we reached down where our jeep was waiting for us.

By this time, the weather had become bad with drizzles starting. By the time we reached the camp, it started to rain. We just sat and relaxed for the rest of the day. We had a real good dinner at the kitchen of the adventure camp. We had the dinner along with our guides, cook and driver. The rains did not take the name of stopping. Anand slept early that day. I and Puneet spoke for sometime and slept. But it was so cold that I woke up at 2 in the morning to check the weather outside. It was still raining heavily and the water level in the Ganges had risen by around 5-7 feet. We finally woke up by 8 in the morning just to discover that it was still raining. Ashok came to us and said that we can freshen up, have breakfast and leave for rafting. We were all excited again for a second day of rafting where we had to cover level 4 rafting!

Rafting started after breakfast. We drove till Shivpuri and started rafting. Today Theku was our guide. The Ganges was furious than the previous day and the level 4 rafting which we were supposed to do had automatically become level 4+. We were all determined to complete the rafting session of 17kms without a single fall! We became more aggressive than the previous day and easily covered the level 3 rafting. Then came the big guy. Theku just told us one thing before we entered “Remember guys, the water in this rapid has so much force that it can rip you apart and throw the raft to wherever it feels like.” Yes, it could have done it. The waves were as high as 20 feet! We were all the more aggressive with this rapid and faced it with a furious round of rafting. We were hit badly by the waves and we enjoyed it! It was an out of the world feeling to just be out of a level 4+ rafting session without being pulled into the water! “Well done team! GANGA!” was the cheer. The rest of the raft went on well without any hasles. Finally by 12 noon the entire 17km rafting session came to an end. We were blessed by hailstones for our achievement!

We then headed towards Madras Café for a good round of lunch. We were initially thinking of Chotiwala but we had cross the river and the boating guy was charging us 200 bucks. Hence we decided against it. We returned to Rashi’s place as Puneet had to leave to Dehradun. Once Puneet went back, me and Anad went around Rishikesh and saw the different temples, Ram jhula, Laxman jhula and many other ashrams. We then arrived at the Paramarth for witnessing the world famous Ganga aarti.

This is a daily routine for all the local Sanskrit students to assemble during sunset and worship Ganges. Since Ganges in India is treated as god, she is worshipped with bhajans and a lot of devotees assemble to witness this 30 minute event. At the same time, government has taken proper measures to keep the Ganges clean. In fact Rishikesh is the cleanest part of Ganges once can see which is not polluted even after so much population and popularity. People are not allowed to put any sort of ‘arpans’ inside the Ganges.

After this short visit to Rishikesh, I and Anand went back to Rashi’s place to finally meet her parents with some time in our hands. It was an amazing experience how different the thought of people in North and South of India is. Relationships and values of a relationship are the closest as far as I have seen in the northern part of the nation, Though it is a matter of fact that it depends on how you take it; but on a larger scale, I feel north India beats the southern part when it comes to valuing relationships. Must tell you, Rashi’s mom is an amazing cook!

After a good round of dinner it was time for me to leave to Delhi. I had a flight booked on Wednesday at 5PM from Delhi. So, I had decided to visit Surajkund in Haryana (near the Del-Har border). It was 4:30AM on 10^th when I reached ISBT. I put the luggage in the cloak room in ISBT, took bath in the public toilet and set my journey towards Surajkund. But, the journey was taking me too much of money as the border had to be crossed. Hence I decided against it and decided to see Delhi instead. I took am auto at 5:30AM and went to Redfort. I had to wait for 2 more hours for it to open. Hence I visited all the temples (Gurudwara, Jain templae, Ram temple and Masjid) on the Chandni chowk – Delhi 6. I then went into the metro station of Chandni Chowk just to check out how metro works in Delhi. Then it was 8 by the time I came back to Red fort. I had a quick glance on the Red fort and by 9:30 I was out and tired. Completely burnt out due to tiredness. I had developed fever as well. Hence I decided to return to the airport and take rest before I board my flight. After a lazy breakfast at CCD, I headed towards the airport. After a nice 4hr nap, I boarded the flight to Bangalore.

After all this, you might be wondering about the significance of the title. Well, these 5 days made me stretch beyond my limits. From a busy life to a slow moving city life to a immobile serene life to a ultra fast city life. I saw it all…

Hoping to have many more lovely trips like this. Cheers to all the lovely people I met in the due course of this trip and three cheers to my fellow travelers – Anand Sawkar and Puneet Agarwal!

The Beauty of a blank mind

This compilation is an output of a few days of mine where I have been blank from the top without letting my brain work the normal way. Wanted to just experience it. Also, given the fact that it has been made to stretch for quite sometime now, wanted to give it a little break as well ;) (Just hope it is not too long though). So, here goes the experiences and a few observations in this one month where my brain has literally not thought in its usual way.

Discovery of the defaults:

There are a few default activities which the neurons will be pre-programmed for. These activities are the ones essential for you in life. For a normal social living with a commonly agreed behavior. They are the ones without which you might not be identified as a normal human being by the external society. On a normal day, this whole process of facts would have lead me to a lot of queries from within questioning the existence of such external influences. But since I had switched my mind off, it was at peace; just accepting the facts and moving on to the next.

These pre-programmed activities actually allow you to re-discover yourself and it lets you at times to discover what you actually have been doing since quite sometime now. The derivation out of this is something which took me by surprise. (It was more of a logical derivation which stuck me while writing this up :P). The point is, if this act of yours which you would have done sometime back and hence registered in your 100+TB of memory allows you to feel happy and satisfied, you have actually discovered your passion! It might not be true always though.

A few built-ins:

In the due course of you playing various roles in your life in order to take it forward, there are a few more characteristics which you would be embedded with. These also to a great extent qualify for being default. But the reason why I have not categorized them as defaults is the fact that these characteristics gets associated with you by choice and not by force. Though you might be pushed into doing a few things by force, at the end of it, they will eventually turn-out to be a choice (because if you had a better choice, you would have gone ahead and done that instead). Even these gets executed without any hassles without much input signals reaching the brain which demands it to work.

A few forced actions:

This was the most difficult part to deal with in the due course of the transition. These are the actions which you would have to perform since you have committed your presence else where. It may work or any other personal commitments which you might not have intense interest in. But, due to the fact that you have committed your contribution, you will be forced to stretch your brain there. Now, this is the case if the brain is not left blank as well. But, there will be a difference in execution of the act when it comes the brain being left blank. This was one observation I had when I introspected and thought back as to if there was a better way of handling things. Well, there actually was a difference. Most of the acts performed were based on the built-in capabilities which I had and the outcome of a solution for a problem was something which I would have obviously done (logically going by the historic record etc). This lead me to a thought process which said "It might be the case where the history speaks and the experiences of history provides a solution". Well, I couldn't arrive at any conclusion though.

Creative actions:

It did not come to my surprise that there were not many creative actions performed in this period of time. There were no actions which spoke of me being different from what I would have done with a 1-2 months of lesser experience in life (It might not have been humongous different though...). Even the interest levels for me towards the acts performed were at a lower end. I was not the same old enthusiastic person and to my surprise it was very evident!

I am not planning to bug you guys any more now! At the end of it, the only moral which I could practically prove out of this exercise is "Thinking is the source of Innovation. Historic events provide solutions to any problem in an expected manner which the world might accept as it is supposed to be proven; but this will not be the ultimate solution to the problem which would have been better dealt if there was some innovation attached. Be foolish; be hungry!"

Shreyas