Shimla Weekend!!

Everyone included me thought that once I am in Delhi and staying with my family, I will start moving towards the lowest depths on having enthusiasm for a Weekend Drive!!

Gosh, I am still the same!!

So after multiple announcements to colleagues and the complete floor and friend list asked to join for the weekend to Shimla, we found no one!!

Finally me and my colleague, Upender Singh (US) decided to goto to Shimla for a drive and a nice weekend (Round trip of 753 kms).

For a change, we decided to travel in the car of US which is a Hyundai Ascent (1.6L) but a black car!!

So we started on Saturday (6 AM), early (by our standards) morning from Noida.
Passing through DND > ITO > Rajghat > Outer Ring Road > Transport Nagar > Sonipat > Panitpat > Karnal > Ambala > Chandigarh > Panchkula > Kalka > Solan we reached Shimla at around 2 PM.

On the way, few things which were different from my earlier trips: - We planned to stop at a Highway Dhaba to have breakfast ........... this part of India is certainly very different from the South in terms of the concept and density of High Way Dhabas ......... south is virtually none!! Since it had been raining for 3 days ............ the land in front of the dhaba was very muddy and since water had logged, the actual land surface was not visible. We, as the smartest racers of our time did what we were supposed to do. We drove the car in a portion which was otherwise blocked by the dhaba owner. And "Thud", the car's front wheels were in the mud pool with the land surface few inches away from the tyres!! Meaning, the Car is stuck and since it is a Fore Wheel drive, it can only work as a pump to push the mud out of the mudpool and nothing else!! So what we did was even more smarter. We sat down at the Dhaba and had the best and heaviest breakfast ever. The Dhaba guy called it a Potato-Onion Paranthas, but it actually was a Paneer Paratha with Loads of Ginger in it ............ probably I had the maximum ginger I had ever eat in my life. So after fulfilling our duties towards our ever-growing tummy's, we moved towards our mud stuck car. Dhaba guy was so cool about it and he applied all his experience (within last 6 hours, ours was the third car stuck there) to pull the car out but apart from him getting all the dirt straight from the source because of the powerful CRDi engine, he got nothing .......... LOOSER!! Yeah, right!!Anyways, a Maruti Zen with the gods in it came and dhaba guy tied the rope to the zen which pulled us out coupled with the push from the dhaba people. We were out of the mud and as a value added service, the Dhaba cook also washed our car with loads of water!! - LandSlides ........... I hope you are aware what is it. Even I was till the time I actually saw it!! we crossed almost 50 places where suddenly the flat road used to get merged with the walls of the ghat road!! Yeah the mountain portions / soil / Trees get detached from certain height and flow / fall down on the NH 22. The road was sometimes becoming narrow enough for only 1 car to pass at a time. Sometimes the forest guys with their cutters were cutting down the massive trees which fell on the road, massive enough to even crush a heavy duty truck. Sometimes suddenly on a U-Bend you could find a completely Round stone (becomes round due to the rolling friction sheering while rolling down hill) absolutely in the middle of the road. Round Stone is of a size of the car itself!!
So we have an adventerous drive uphill.One of the most different view ever was of a White TATA Safari defying gravity. When it was parked, all the 4 tyres were at the same altitude and when the landslide happened, front tyres remained at the same altitude while the back tyres went up by about 2 metres and hence the car was almost parked with its full weight on it's front bumper.

So with all those scenes, we reached Shimla. Parking was expected to be a pain and yes, it did prove itself. But we smart guys of Delhi, with some story got a nice parking near Hotel Combermere.

We went upto the Mall road ........ fortunately we had taken an umbrella along so had the vehicle for walking in the rain.

We first bought another umbrella and then took a room in Hotel Willow Bank on "The Mall". Amazing place to stay and honestly, I recommend it even when they did not agree to my commission.

So after a lot of rains and umbrella walking on the Mall Road and watching few nice faces, we had a good sleep at the Hotel and with a heavy breakfast we started back.

During our stay, we witnessed Aftab's shooting, babes in Barista, babes in ATM's, Landslides on the Mall, Institute of Advanced Studies (place where India-Pakistan divison map was discussed. Though surprised to know that Lord Mountbatton wanted India-Pakistan to be a single country. I hate myself for my History knowledge). Some scenic images and excellent wether, we started back on Sunday noon.

On the way back, we again crossed good amount of small and big land slides ........... as usual we drove at a speed of 100kmph as well in the hills and 150kmph on the planes.

Now the ordeal on our way back from Chandigarh to Delhi.

We, starved smarty's from Shimla had heard a lot about a place by name "Haveli" for roadside high value Dhaba. By the time we finished our downhill journey, we realised that the place is about 100 kms from Chandigarh and it is already 4PM!!So the starving hunks increased their speed to 150 kmph and were zooming across the crowded highway when suddenly we went over a road edge and realised that the tyre started making a sound and the car pulled itself towards it's left. We stopped and one of the worst fears of Highway Dwellers, the fron left tyre went flat!!What can be as bad as this? Worst is not seeing a nightmare, Worst is the nightmare coming true!!So, the car was not equipped with following: - Jack - Spanner (special one to open the Alloy Wheels) - Brain (of the car owner) :-)

Fortunately for us, the incident happened at a place where we were sourrounded by loads of tyre experts around. But Unfortunately, it is a sunday so shops are closed. So what we did? we ran around searching for any shop which is open and finally we found few within 0.5 kms!!Guys tried and tried but were not able to open the wheel coz the spanner never matched the size!! but after multiple permutations and combinations, we achieved success and hence we drove on!!

We reached back Noida at aroun 9:15 PM and we ended with another Journey with another long story to share with our friends!!

Few Photos for this blog are below:

My Drives!! Till now!!

Most of you might know but my 5 years of job and 2.75 years of driving my car, I have over 70K kms in my single hand driving!!
My all drives have a story of its own!! not all but I remember few important ones!!

First Drive.
I am in Hyderabad. 1st week of the car!! I call my friend Amit Prabhaker (AP) and ask him if he is free .............. a love this guy for this ............. always ready for going out!!
First trip started from Begumpet to Shameerpet ............. about 35 kms one side .................. we reached back Begumpet at around 5 PM!! but driving se pet nahin bhara!!
we looked at each other and thought ............ maza nahin aaya .......... lets go for a longer drive!! so we called our Local Colleague, Mr. Navneet Kumar Vooplanchi. Asked him ......... we wanna a slightly longer drive, what do you suggest?
He said ........... Nagarjuna Sagar Dam chale jaao ............... humne poocha ki kitni door hai? He said about 160 kms ........... we again looked at each other and decided that we will go .......... we were not close to our homes. Just asked Navneet the Highway that we need to take!!
with that information .......... we thought why to waste time to go home and pick clothes ......... decided that we would pick clothes, towels on the way ............ thats what we did!! Started at around 7PM and reached hotel at around 10 in the night!!
wonderful trip ............. almost 350 kms is what we covered!!

So, 1 trip to Nagarajuna Sagar Dam.
next trip to Machalipatnam from Hyderabad - 830 kms
next trip from HYD to Kurnool and Belum Caves - 750 kms
next trip to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam again with Mom - 350 kms
next trip from HYD to Srisailam with Mom - 550 kms
next trip from HYD to Machalipatnam - 830 kms again
next trip from HYD to Bangalore - 1200 kms
next trip from HYD to Bangalore again - 1200 kms

then I changed my job and came to bangalore ............ so travelled another 600 kms 1 way!!
I started from HYD at 6PM for Bangalore along in my car with my stuff stuffed in the car!! I was driving in the night on a lonely highway all alone!! ............... around 40 kms ahead of Anathpur ........ I see something moving on the road ............. I put multiple flashes, no reaction ............. I apply brakes n horn at full intesity ............. the car is screeching and honking and moving towards that moving object!! .......... it is an highway with barren land around!! .............. wow!! it is a villager crossing the highway as if he is walking in a garden ........... they guy does not hear the horn, nor the brakes, he ignores the light of the car as well ............. it is 9 in the night!!
boom ............. the guy gets hit first by the left bumper, takes a arial somersault, rests his hand on the corner of my windscreen ........... I see pressure of his hand cracking my car's windscreen .......... the crackes propogate through the complete glass and i start boiling .......... the guy takes another round over my roof and falls on the road ............ his villager friends come running .............. I stop my car ............. come out really smoking!! ............. his Hindi speaking friends tell me not to worry nor be afraid!! .............. I say, I am not worried or scared but feel like slapping ur friend ............. the guy is alive with some blood comoing from his head ........... I ask him and his family to sit in the car ........... took them to the hospital ............... drove back 40 kms to anathpur .................. with 7 people in the car apart from me .......... the car has capacity is what I realised then!! ................ got the guy checked at a small hospital then ............. my bank account was towards Chapter 11 (read about Lehman Brothers) .............. so on the way I called my friend sidgu in Bangalore who helped me and transferred some currency into my dry account ........... I paid the hospital bill ............ everyone except me got benefitted from this ........ the doc said that he would have to keep the guy under observation for 2 days ......... so I paid 2 days rent ............... they the villagers decided that they would like to take injured back home!! the guy was so damn drunk that he was drowsy even after 1 hour of accident ............ so the doc was not sure if medicines have worked on him or not!! so the doc earned his 2 days of room rent .......... i gave some money to the injured guy as he has small children at home!! ............ the guy had a dislocated clavicle (collar bone) ............... so I left him at his home and started my journey again by 1 AM .............. reached Bangalore at 3AM after actually killing a dog!!

So now I am Bangalore.

Once I reached Bangalore, my elder bro's marriage was round the corner ............ my mom did not deny my suggestion of getting my car for my bro's marriage ............ by the way the marriage was in Haridwar (Uttaranchal) .............. so my mom n my bro travelled to Bangalore and we started for Hardwar (or Haridwar).
The drive of about 2800 kms from Bangalore to Haridwar took 3 days .......... 3 nights sleep too ....... almost 36 hours of driving ............ Bangalore ---> Anantpur ---> Kurnool ----> Shamshabad ---> Hyderabad ----> Medchal ----> Nizamabad ---> Adilabad ---> Nagpur ---> Sagar ---> Jhansi ---> Gwalior ---> Agra ---> Delhi ---> Meerut ---> Muzaffarnagar ---> Roorkee ---> Hardwar
amazing drive ............. u wanna see India ............. take this drive!! you would again fall in love with India .........
touching 7 states and 1 Union Territory ............. karnataka > Andhra Pradesh > Maharashtra > Madhya Pradesh > Uttar Pradesh > Rajasthan > Delhi > Uttaranchal

and the the same drive back ............... so the round trip ................... total of 5600 kms!! drive of a lifetime!!

3rd weekend in Bangalore and I am pissed off with my stay in city over weekends ........... this time I have a time of 4 days ............. 2 holidays also with the weekend.
10 AM on Saturday morning .............. I am online, chatting with my first room mate in Bangalore, Sushant Pattnayak (SP) (who was not room mate that time) ................ we stay about 5 kms away from each other ............ then we chat on what are we doing .......... I tell him that I am getting bored ............ how about you?? SP is also getting bored ............. lets go for a drive ........... How bout Nandi Hills? SP says ................ thats like 70 kms roundtrip ............. bad idea ........... dropped ............. how bout Pondicherry? SP suggests again ................ no yaar ........... it will be hot this time ........... then where?? SP asks .................. how bout Goa?? .............. SP thinks for about 10 sec and then says .............. chal!! (I love SP too for this!!) ............. kitna rokra (money) lagega? I have only 2.5K in my A/C!! SP said .............. I also have only 4K in my A/C ........... lets go ......... so we decided to start by 12 noon.
While I am getting ready ............ I call Abhinav Banerjee (AB) and this guy has hats-off enthu .......... he says, OK .............. he gets another common friend Nikhil Singhal (NS) ready and we are off to Goa by 1 PM ............. amazing trip.
So round trips from Bangalore are:
BLR - Goa (SP, AB, NS) : 1500 kms
BLR - Belum Caves (Jibitesh Swain, Priyanka Panda, Nikhil Kumar): 500 kms
BLR - Coorg (JS, NK, Prabhash Jain) : 800 kms
BLR - Pondicherry (Swapnil Bhatnagar) : 900 kms (amazing drive on East Coast Road)
BLR - Yercaud (SB, AB, Rahul Godara) : 500 kms
BLR - Hampi (JS, SB, AB, Punit Sharda, Ashish Agarwal, Abhishek Thakur) : 850 kms
BLR - Bellary (JS, PP) : 850 kms
BLR - Hampi (with Mom) : 850 kms
BLR - Munnar (JS, PP, AB) : 1250 kms
BLR - Goa (JS, SB, Rajesh Pujahari) : 1500 kms
BLR - Wayanad (JS, PP, NS) : 550 kms
BLR - Wayanad (with friends) : 550 kms
BLR - Wayanad (with family) : 550 kms
BLR - Yercaud (SB, PS, RG) : 500 kms
BLR - Yercaud (with friends) : 500 kms
BLR - Yercaud (SB, PS, AB) : 500 kms
BLR - Goa (AB, Ankur, Salil) : 1500 kms (I hit my under chassis - Gear Box Casing)
BLR - Goa (SB, AB, Chetan Indolia, Ashit Baijal) : 1500 kms
Last drive from Bangalore is while changin my next job ........... so I again drove back to Haridwar to Delhi
BLR > Hyderabad > Nagpur > Sagar > Jhansi > Gwalior > Agra > Delhi > Hardwar > Delhi : 3000 kms

so lots n lots of driving till I was having my free bachelor life in hyderabad and bangalore.

Now I am in Delhi staying with my family ............. have I stopped?? No!!
I have been in Delhi to 2.5 months now (about 10 weekends), I have stayed in the NCR region for only 3 weekends ........... otherwise travelling ........ sometimes by car
Delhi - Haridwar (twice) : 220 kms
Delhi - Jaipur : 600 kms
Delhi > Lucknow > Gorakhpur > Allahabad > Lucknow > Delhi : 3000 kms

The last trip mentioned above we had another experience ............ my, my mom n my younger bro were driving from Gorakhpur to Allahabad in day time .......... due to road quality it took lot of time .......... so as sun went down .......... we touched the limits of the MOST NOTORIOUS AREA in India .............. AZAMGARH ............. and the experience in night on those road could be really sad ...............
I generally drive fast but safe (atleast I feel :-D) ............. so I was driving at 120 Kmph when I was trying to overtake from a black safari who suddenly turned right the moment I was crossing ........... i thought a typical road ego could have made this happen ............ so I sobered down by giving horn, flash and tried again ............ again the guy suddenly moved to right lane (road without divider) ............. then we realised that it was a convoy of 3 cars ............ 2 black n 1 white SUV ............. some different kind of numbers ...........
After few attempts we observed that they are driving in a formation with first car towards the extreme left, second car in the middle of the road and the last one on extreme right ......... the the last car used to come to left lane only when there is any vehicle coming from opposite direction.
So now as a humble guy i tried again .......... slowly ............. this time the window of the back seat on the left came down ........ and a face came out of the window and started observing my car and the number ( it is a AP registration vehicle) .............. still not realising the risk, I tried again ....... this time a nozzle of a typical long gun came out of the window along with the head (thank fully not pointing towards us) ................... we were then like ................ hang on!! ........... we slowed down our car like Delhi city limits and let those guys go ahead ............... creating huge distance ........... and only then we moved ............... so this is what I call as "Uttar Pradesh Experience"

In major changes .............. gear box casing changed ............. twice the wind screen changed (only 1 due to accident) ................ brake shoes (multiple times) ........... clutch and pressure plates .......... wiper blades ............ tyres .............. tubes .................. fog lamps (4 times) ............ side rear view mirror once!! so all in all a nice drive!!

- Any takers if I wanna sell my car?? ;-) though I dont intend to at all

Disclaimer:
The distances mentioned above are approximate and include local travel as well. I can not be hold liable for any misrepresentation of distances, if any. :-)

Job Change

kaafi time ho gaya ................ blog likh lena chahiye!!
Afterall, when I know how costly is the webspace, why to waste it with a blog which has no posts since 2007!! so here I am again back (not sure for how long though) :-)

Today I have a total work ex of 5 years, 3 months and 2 days!!
Man, for a total span of life that I have lived till now, it is almost 20% of my total life!! Is it too much?? Looks like .............. but when u see others in their corporate life, u know that there is still a lot which needs to be done!!

3rd company in 5 years ............ career graph speaks ............ 3 years with Sify, 2 years with Verizon and now with Nucleus. Experience of 5 years in Telecom, and now in Banking!! what has remained in common is only corporate sales.

But going through the experiences and changes, few things that I have learnt:
- Change with a clear view of the next change
- While Changing ensure that the profile is offered as what you wanted (exactly)
- Company's financials dont matter. You get your salaries at the end of month (generally correct since I write this during the Lehman Brothers issue)
- If you can find, check on the culture of the organisation in advance ............ this could be a serious challenge!!

But few things that I very strongly feel now are:
- people who move up the ladder the wrong way, stop somewhere so dont get bothered by them
- never take pressure. what maximum can happen? you would loose your job?? you can always find another one!!
- If you are good, you are a hot cake!!
- Personal creditibility is very important. It is the only thing that works externally and internally so well.
- Always keep your personal and professional network alive. Never use your personal network for your own job and never use your professional network for job of your friends.

Lot of time me n my close friends discuss on a very debatable topic:
What is success? How do you measure success?
As per me, might sound very bad but, I would see my friends with similar education levels from similar colleges earnings!! that is the only thing that you could quantify.
Job role, Job satisfaction is so subjective that you can keep on doing study on the reasons why are others satisfied or happy with their roles!!
apart from the quantifiable money, you should be happy with what you are doing!! Also, one should remember that you deserve sometime with yourself. Keep proper time for your personal stuff (even if u dont have any of it ;-) )

I think this is a long blog ............ an attempt after some time!!

May be ............. nect blog I would list down my list of trips in my car!!