State of the Union

A couple of oceans between a couple of persons can be large enough to not be able to cross while also being sharp enough enough to keep that void cut and open, with that extra saline touch. What happens next? This is a great point of time to think about. Would this just be like a dent in a car which gets fixed and at the mechanic and we all go back driving our way into our old lives, talking about those few days?

Would there be a significant change that alters life forever. It would be interesting to see. It is also a great opportunity to peer into how leaders behave when under stress. Wherever we work, whatever we do, we would be in a microcosm of the same system.

I always used to wonder why my parents see so much news. I know why I will. It is partially for that information, but not entirely. There is so much more about how each Leader behaves, thinks and communicates. No wonder our debate competitions were important at school. Sometimes, it might not even matter what one thinks, but the debate has to go on and the answer has to come up. It has to match or exceed expectations. Welcome to instant gratification where a politician is judged by their low latency high impact responses. Is that what is required to come into power? or is that what is required to take good decisions? Or is that the only metric like we would be forced to identify if we attempt to interview people.. To find a data chart to fit a candidate in, to have a satisfied feeling that we took a logical decision.

Hosw long would it take before blogs close down completely? What has changed in the last few years?

Answer: Instant gratification. Reading takes a while. The brain is in dire need of it's dopamine effect and it has to be visual and within seconds. More than that is going to cause deprivation. We are headed into a spot with a touch of bother.

WWE of animals

I always wonder who would win! Cockroaches? Mantis?

The Giants of the World

It was the 24th of November 2016. We packed a little. Trying to get SMPT to work, Chitra kept working on the problem for a while, finally sleeping late around 1:30 AM.

 Here is a late night summary photo :

Waking around 7, we resumed packing and left for the airport around 11:30 AM, only to realize we missed a very important thing. Code push, was pushed uncleanly. The rest of the travel in the cab was filled with an air of sadness, breaking into momentary panic when the car dicky got jammed and we had to cut through one of the straps of the bag to get it to open.
We reached Kolkata late afternoon, confirmed that things were back to normal. A call to Bhutiaji gut us the driver numbers and along joined Vanathi meanwhile.

A cab trip to Sealdah, a long walk to dinner at a bakery(the only place where we could find food) and a walk back was how the second half of our journey to the start began.

26th November

A good night's sleep in the train and we reached NJP, a good one and a half hour late, with a waiting pair of passengers. Off we went to Chitrey via Maneybhanjang via Mirik. It was a good four hour journey and it would be followed by a nice 6-7 KM of trek. The primary worry was the delay in train would cascade into our first day's trek and delay us long enough to be forced to trek well into darkness.


A halt on the way is mandatory when the clouds clear up to get a preview of the majestic giants:

Enroute to Chitrey

Kanchenjunga visible for few moments when the sky cleared up(on route)

A reduction of about 2.5 very steep kilometers from Maneybhanjang to Chitrey got avoided by the helpful Bhutiaji and our driver agreeing to leave us upto Chitrey.

Norben, Chitra and Vanathi at Chitrey

A 110 year old monastry at Chitrey

Our new guide and friend for the next week, and a closer friend now, Jigmay Tenzing encouraged us to go to the monastry. Irrespective of the delay, he showed confidence that we could do it easily just to leave our spirits higher.
Getting down, we had a nice lunch, rested for some time, walked down to the ancient monastry, a 110 year old gompa. This place had monks meditating for 6 years, 6 months and 6 weeks. A youtube video gives more details of an 86 year old person, Namgayal who moved to Chitrey from Tibet :

A foggy walk in the clouds, till Lamadhurey, where we met 3 muske-dogs, friendly, hyper-active and huge as a bull. Off we went, crossing them after petting them from a distance and off to Meghma.

A paid jeep trip for 2.5 kms as the darkness was quick and we wanted to reach our destination for the day, Tumling at least by dinner time. The jeep dropped us a Meghma with an Indian army post on the right and Nepal on the left. A short walk and a small room was shown to us with a bison's head.

 A fork here with a left for Tumling,(in Nepal) and Tonglu (in India) was right there. A left in the darkness, into Nepal with old songs on Jimgayji's phone and multiple lights, we slowly kept moving. An hour or an hour and a half and we reached a beautiful mansion, Shikhar hotel, with a superb dinner setting. A sumptuous dinner, sleep and we were ready for an early morning trek to see the sun rise.
A Long period of walk in the dark led to long conversations to avoid animals, fear and boredom. An interesting piece of information that came up was the use of Skytrek app for trekking, altitude and route information.

Room in Shikhar Lodge

in Landscape mode :)

other half of the room

The Kitchen view from the dining room

27th November.

A good night's sleep in the wooden room wrapped under cozy razaais, the long trek ensured that we started sleeping deeply the moment we hit the bed. An early morning wake up time of 5 AM and a walk out to a little higher area started at 5:30 AM. A 15 minute walk brought us a little higher than where we were in the lodge. A 10 minute wait for dawn was quite a sight with people from different cultures, states, countries soaking in the early morning feeling waiting for the ever faithful sun to rise.

The first glimpse of sunlight

more sun

The sleeping buddha basking in the first rays

A slow shade of deep orange starting from the bottom started eating out the dark blue. Slowly and steadily, a line formed, the horizon. And lo and behold, a sheet of golden shining armour on the sleeping buddha, the kanchenjunga range, made our morning.

Back to the lodge, a great breakfast with Tibetan bread, eggs and aloo gobi curry and off we went around 8:30 AM to our next destination, Kalpokhri. It was a nice sunny day with great climate. We had explained to Jigmayji that we wanted to take the trail route avoiding the route to walk in silence and amidst the green. So, we walked through a lush green patch of forest, dense and full of birds. Reaching Gairibas, where an Indian army post greeted us, we left for Kayyakatta and reached our destination, Kalpokhri for a Thukpa lunch late afternoon in deep mist. Jigmay ji alerted us to finish quickly as another good 40 minute walk was required to reach the day's destination and it was going to rain heavily. It was already 4 PM and that is the time when darkness starts trickling into the sky.

Vanathi and Little Tenzing

View from the room

A little morning walk

Wife has blog too : http://chitra11.blogspot.in/

Shepherd's paradise : Rupin

 Draft

As we waited for the flight to land in Chennai, among about a 100 other people, an elderly lady handed us two sweetmeats, another touch of humanity, my mind leapt back, jumping right into the last one week - A hidden expanse of nature's pristine beauty, dotted with grazing herds and lazy clouds, I lay on the soft, moist grass, chewing a straw, no thoughts in the head.


For such precious moments, our planning began six months before, in the month of January, when we decided that we had finally marginally moved up our fitness and deserved to do a harder trek. An assumption, which would be overruled, along the course of our journey. Along with Sreejith and Milon, we setup and confirmed dates, made travel plans, got leaves approved and waited with anxiety for the days we were counting down for. We tried as much as we could to run, jog, walk, swim, cycle, so that we finish the trek well.


Finally, when we were a day away, a hurried trip to Decathlon, a night long packing session followed by 2 hours of sleep and off we were, back with the huge bags, hoping they were lighter this time. Landing in Delhi, we spent time with Mrinal at his place, lugging the bags, hoping against hope that they get lighter our our shoulders gets more powerful. Late night, we got into the Last train to Dehradun, which was full of trekkers. As I dozed off to glory, I was awoken from my beauty sleep by Chitra, informing me that we were still at the Delhi station. And there we were, as the boards said it, right on the same platform, 3 hours after departure time, due to faulty A/C. Our train finally reached around 9 AM, much to the frustration of co-passengers, more to the frustration of our waiting team at the station.


Dehradun was no different from Delhi. Heavily polluted, hot, noisy, different from the Dehradun  we visited last winter. Meeting Sreejit and Milon after one whole year was good. We enquired if we could get Gajendra bhai-"Tum se na ho Payega". (Our last driver who had given us full confidence of our incapability to finish two treks back-back )But no, he was dropping people for another trek. Thus started our journey with our co-passengers being Parikshit and Manish. A nice small break for 1/2 kg of litchis for breakfast and a lunch on the way and finally we reached Dhaula. A wide ground of grass surrounded by hills with pines on all sides, just by a growling Rupin. A few introductions later, much needed sleep would take over after a yummy dinner. It was a group of 19 people, with me and Chitra skirting the edge of the age groups, along with Pushan,


A searing reminder of the news we had seen was the burning forest in the background, creatively moving around, forming beautiful patterns, but burning out the green, day and night.

Morning tea, ablutions, packing, and we were green to start. On a burning day, sweat dripping away like the multiple water falls at Rupin, we crawled through the “trails”, wide mud roads from Dhaula to Sewa. A 2-floor wooden homestay was the place to crash for the day. This was where we found the abundant growth of marijuana plants, right as it is called, weed. I met a smart kid called Prem Kumar, who would write down any new name he heard, citing poor memory. Then, he would keep calling the person, attempting to extract chocolates, biscuits or any new eatables. As the kids played cricket with Chitra, Parikshit and Manish, I walked around to take photos of any birds I could find. The result: Poision ivys leaving rashes all over my legs. I did get a consolation shot of a hopoe. An interesting creature all along this terrain was something between a garden lizard and a small iguana.
The second day’s walk was not very different. From Sewa to Jiskun, a village which had a post office. The route demanded a long walk as we moved into Himachal from UK. It started with sighting a majestic vulture. Brisk walks across thick jungles and then

Spice coast marathon personal report

All ready on Friday afternoon, working from home to avoid the rain, we left early and reached the station for our super ac express. Not kidding, that is the real name.

The non stop monsoon delayed our awesome train trip and we arrived around 4 am delayed by 2 hours. Reaching our hotel Aiswarya, a good budget hotel, we fulfilled the remaining sleep required and had breakfast at Kempu Veg. Keep in mind we have just walked from the station into our hotel. A nice long bath, check out and a cab trip to Oberon mall for the race kit through desperately full roads. A move lunch in the mail and back we were near the boat jetty, four rupees to the government and we boarded our first 'water bus' which was a novel experience in itself as we reached fort kochi.

Solar cafe, just outside the boat jetty, served for a neat meal. Arafat's rent a bike on princess street was the next location where we walked to, got a bike for ourselves for the day and off we went... Slowly crossing Wellington island and reached Riviera suites for the night.

A good night's sleep, and we were back to getting ready, this time for the marathon. Reflective stickers, caps, banana, all set. A short pleasant ride along Wellington island and we were there thanks to the rented bike.

And a good marathon it was... But that is another story altogether... This is just the pre and post...



Once the marathon was over, we went back, rested aa bit, checked out and off we went to fort kochi... Going round and round, we went to the synagogue, the dutch palace and finally settled for a late snack at Kashi art cafe. Submitting the vehicle, we were finally back on foot to the boat jetty, a little boat ride back to Ernakulam and another meal at Kempu...

One final thing, we met Shaheer, after a little less than six months after our trek. Glad he came.


Here are some pictures:

Photos from the boat trip from Ernakulam to fort kochi

Solar cafe, near boat jetty, fort kochi

Mandatory picture of Chinese fishing nets

         The interesting Kashi art gallery

Motivational quote helped me finish

Goechala

While in west Sikkim(Pelling), we stopped at a small cafe for a meal along with a view of Kanchenjunga when a native introduced himself and explained about trekking in Sikkim. While chatting over dinner at Kabur, we went through a couple of books and asked around and understood that Yuksom is a village where trekkers often start from.

A month later, we booked our trek with India hikes. Six months from then and off we went, high again in the air, in the same direction we went exactly six months ago. Getting down at Kolkata, we boarded the connecting flight for Bagdogra and were off to New Jalpaiguri were the shared transport would come. We took a cab from the airport looking around at the familiar yet different surroundings and reached NJP within an hour with a charge of 475, booking a prepaid cab at the airport itself.

Hotel Breeze did not look all that breezy, but it served the purpose of an economical place to put up for a night. Looking back a few hours, we imagined how we had gone about buying the bare necessities for the trek. The trek shoes, the bag, the poncho, the thermals, the borrowed jackets and how we would get our trek poles from the base camp. How well connected we were thanks to the whatsapp group and how the earthquake posed a threat to our trek. We talked on and thought on till sweet dreams took over and the next day began with the first walk with our luggage. A few seconds and we switched to a manual rickshaw till the station for 30 rupees.

Upon reaching the station, we found the rest of our group who were supposed to start alongside us from NJP, all except for two: A Mr.Rajesh whose train was delayed and a Roopesh, who said he will reach soon. My first impressions of Roopesh were like those a long known friend when he finally hurried into the station looking around for a place to take a xerox. The four in our jeep were good to go.


Just before sunset, we finally reached the very place whose first utterance we heard six months ago. We were here and it was beautiful. A little converted shop below and a couple of rooms above made the india hikes base camp, with Mr. Subba, the person in charge, also the owner of the shop which  sold trek goods like the amazing two left handed water proof gloves we bought. A common swallow family with many little off springs peeking at us was a sight to behold. Barring the little chirps and the occasional whirring of the vehicles, and some banter between people who had just come down after finishing, there was no other penetrating sound. We met Mr.Sudipta, who would be taking care of the place and doing a lot of management behind the scenes for IH. This then followed up with a little briefing by our lanky leader Prateek, who cautioned us against doing anything not expected. In the middle of the briefing arrived the missing remaining contingent, coming from !NJP.  We also met Shiben, who was going to be the sweeper for the rest of the journey who turned out to be the most regular companion with us throughout the journey.


Day 1: And we heard from Roopesh about how every gram matters. How the bag will feel lighter everytime, we brush our teeth because we squeeze out some toothpaste, how the extra clothes never matter, because you are too tired to change, how min weight is of max importance and off we ran, trying to reduce as much we could off those giant bags.

A few minutes and we got our brand new golden trek poles which Roopesh promptly screwed out and had immense trouble and getting it back to normal. Then came running, our trek guide, the charming Dawa. A little stretching and off we went. 2 minutes into the trek and we could already feel that this was not going to be easy. Slowly we made our way going higher and higher till we reached out lunch spot finally, which I forget now.

Then, after what appeared like days or months of walking, we finally saw a place which looked like humans could be existing in. The bags felt like someone had replaced our clothes with heavy stones as we barely crawled into our camping site. A small hut with a roof top became the banter place as people took turns to talk about their previous treks, today's heat, flipkart esops and what not.


Bakhim : was where we had reached at 9000 ft, the cold was already getting to us when the rain gods started to pur down some water. When the rains decreased, we walked back to our camps and I had a lot of black tea to keep myself hot along with the fantastic biscuits. I found that Dawa's voice would be the alarm for the next few days for the availability of food. Getting into our tent, we finally slept well and long. The next morning was the first day without concrete toilets.

The place with the silent T :

Inconvenient for the first day, we managed fine and walked the green two kilometers to reach Tshokha amid mild drizzle around 11 am. This was the day people talked away to their heart's content. Unending talks about everything that is wrong in the world kept happening and it appeared that if we just went back to the society, we could change it in seconds. This was the first place from which the beauty of the majestic Kanchenjunga range was visible from close.

 And this was the only place where Rajesh told me a lot about Adobe and Flipkart, Roopesh shared his inclination to believe an astrologer who wouldnt charge money, Ramki, me and Roopesh talked about a few things. And then, it was dark. Rajesh Flipkart and Sreejith had a deep passion for photography along with a deep interest for lighted tents which they forced me into. Having only a mechanical light, I still remember rotating that light for well over half an hour and then when I finally asked if I can stop, I was handed a battery light.

Phedong:

Early morning and slowly we rose to the dazzling beauty outside. The sun coming up made for a very pleasant feeling when the heat finally came along. We got ready and packed everything, ready to move. We were told that this would be the toughest day. As a group, we slowly started nodding our greetings to the the Netherland friends and slowly walked through the scant houses, the monastery and it's small heart shaped lake. Each step taking us higher and higher, actually too high for comfort. The route, had wooden logs placed perpendicular to the direction of walking, leaving us feel like miniature trains.

The walk speed slowed down to a crawl pace and the destination never looked like it could get closer when a hint of snow and the distant white brought us back the motivation we needed. Slowly, we reached our destination, at 4pm, Dzongi.

The Matching Mufflers place: Dzongri


Kockchurang

Thansing

River Bank camping : Lamuney

Samiti
Kockchurang
Phedong:
Tshokha!!
Yuksom
Khechoperi
Siliguri
And bye!