Friday, August 31, 2007

Magnanimity

I went to a Titan watch service shop yesterday.
Reason: The minute hand in my watch was dangling!!

The lady at the counter took my watch and requested me to wait for 5 minutes. No big deal..I turned my attention to a chart named ”Inside of Watch” and did not realize 15 minutes have passed. At the same moment, the lady called me to give the “fixed” watch. I was struggling to find my wallet and was totally astounded when she said “no charge ma’am”!

The watch was 4 years old and I did not even buy it from the main shop associated with this service shop.

Well, you need to pay a price for everything, but not for 15 mins of craftsmanship in a Titan service shop!! Kudos to Titan!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Counting my treks

One of my colleagues casually asked “What is the count of treks that you have done so far?” I could not answer him immediately and may be he thought it was countless. This is retrospection on that and I have tried to list down my treks so far…

1. Trek to a hilltop that had a Hanuman temple at Pilani City, Rajasthan (outside college campus). During that time I could not distinguish between trek and walk..but it was pure adventure. Sneaking out of campus in a bike and convincing 4 of my friends to accompany me for this ordeal.
2. Next was to Vaishnavo Devi , Jammu. It was 28km stretch up and down with just 1 hr of break. Here, I managed to get around 10 people to say “yes”, but finally only 2 turned up.
3. Trek at Srisailam, near Hyderabad
4. On the banks of Ganges at Rishikesh (10km). This was accompanied by the river rafting and the deep dive plunge/jump into Ganges
5. NamaduChilumilye, near Tumkur, Karnataka
6. Erstwhile Nandi Hills, near Bangalore
7. Siddarabetta, near Bangalore
8. Thadiyanmol, Karnataka
9. Kodachadari, West Karnataka
10. Chakleshpur Railway Track, Karnataka
11. Bisle Forest again in Karnataka
12. Chembra Peak at Kerala
13. A small trek at Thiruvannamalai, Tamilnadu to see the ashrams. This was the fastest trek I have ever done.
14. Savandurga, Near Bangalore
15. Moon light trek on Magadi Road, Bangalore
16. Devarayanadurga, Near Bangalore
17. Bandipur, Karnataka
18. Tapovan, Himalayas. For more details browse other pages of my blog. This basically covered Gangotri, Gomukh and Tapovan.
19. Goa Trek  (till Dudh Sagar falls) - on the beaches
20. Mt.Kailash, Manasarovar lake at Tibet.
21. Grandfather mountain hike (NC US)
22. Great Smoky Mountains hike (TN US)
23. Couple of trails in Sri Lanka and Nepal (not full fledged treks)
24. Few Trails in St. Louis (MO US), ended with sky diving from 12000 ft
25. Hiked the Great wall of China (Beijing), ofcourse only a portion of it :-)
26. Everest Base Camp ( one through Gokyo lakes)

Its candid that my treks do have a cardinality, contrary to my colleague’s conjecture. Though, I must admit that there are a myriad of memories associated!!

Monday, August 13, 2007

Monkey's Message

Soft little fingers clutching my shoulders, a small and delicate body touching my back…yes it took a while for me to realize that it was a Monkey. Thoughts raced my mind on what this monkey would want from me?? I immediately felt a strong pull of my wallet, which at the moment was neatly concealed in my armpit!!

I let out a shout, as any other normal person would do which stopped some of the passerby-turned onlookers. Well, it did not stop the Monkey that was keen on snatching the purse away from me. After a short tussle, I gave it up to avoid any harm. I must admit that the Monkey was very decent and smart – It got what it want without much hue and cry!! It took the purse and rested on the pavement. Money was less, I was just concerned about my credit card cos I was in a foreign land and was not quite sure about blocking my card quickly.

By then there was a crowd behind me watching all the drama…me and my friend were just patiently waiting and hoping that the Monkey would soon get disinterested with the purse and leave it off. It pulled all the cash and threw it out attaching “no value” to it! It also tried to chew up some cards without caring a damn about the spectators and being the center of attraction.

After 2-3 minutes of this ordeal, it just left the purse and went off. It was a small incident but had a very “deep” effect and made me to realize something!!

What it was – I leave that up to your imagination!!

Note : This was written just within a few hours of the event fresh from the mind, I just got to post it here today without editing it.
Event Place/Date : Kathmandu, Nepal / 28, May 2007