Coffee country - Coorg photos

Coffee Country Part 1

Have been planning for a week end gateway for quite some time. The Christmas week end presented the perfect opportunity to have a quick getaway and Coorg seemed to be the best choice.

Being a long week end the difficult part was getting accomodation and after some enquiring I reaslised that either there was acco in most of the hotels or it was too expensive. The good ones had doubled their rates. Having made my mind to go, started to look for alternatives and after some trepidation I booked a home stay ( good old Infy BB came to my rescue ) at Murnad ( did not find the place in any of the maps ). Only comforting note was the guy on the other side of the phone sounded very pro active. Charges were kind of resonable.

We were all set to go ...

take me higher

want to be among the stars
twinkle and bright
where have I come
how do I know where to go
let the path come alive

floating nowhere
thoughts getting me some where
caught in the whirlpool of time
dont like the daily sweat and grime

who am I
what do I achieve
money fame or prosperity
its me to decide

deep into a cesspool
much deeper in a mire
hold me get me out
take me higher

Two of the memorable crickets videos

Police upholders of law ?

The other day I in a small group were travelling by train for a friends's marriag. Since we were sitting in a group two of our seats were vacant in the neighbouring compartment.At around 10 pm we suddenly see a policeman ( had a pistol ) barging in our vacant seats. Inspite of my repeatedly telling him that the seats belonged to us - he appeared deaf and sat on the vacant berth. Hearing my pleas one my colleagues a girl came and also pleaded but the guy sat like a stone. We then decided to ignore him for a while later he got up and went away leaving his luggage.

A man aged around 60 in the same compartment who was witnessing this whole scene immediately pullled me and said that the policeman is looking out for a berth and he may forcibly occupy the seat and adviced me to immediately sleep off . We took his advice put the policeman's luggage down and dozed off.

I kept wondering what is the stage of constabulary in this country. There have been numerous incidents in the recent past when the upholders of justice have themselves become villans. An average man seems to have little recourse in this country. Anyone who has been to a police station for whatever reason normally has only horror stories to tell.

Our rendezvous with the guy did not end. To our surprise the very next day when taking back the return train I find this guy again in the train trying to negotiate with the ticket collector for a vacant seat. In the morning he kept staring at me like a caged lion wanting to pounce on his next victim.

One of songs I like - here I go again

I have never been a great fan of hard rock but some songs stay back and you still come back to listen them time again. Lot of people may not have heard about this group called Whitesnake but I have liked some of their songs . Posting of one of my favorites. What I really liked were the lyrics and the right accompanying music.

Free again ...

I still remmember that the term Inertia being taught in the physics class during the secondry school. The physics definition is actually very interesting "the property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force" . The point to be noted is to act without the external force. I kept thinking how this has affected me - how many times dont react or take action even when it could be absolutely necessary and by the time it becomes imperative the essence may be lost or even the opportunity. The so called power of "positive procastination". The funny part how do
I keep postponing doing things and how this is a larger part of the inbuilt human tendency.I have seen this affecting both the personal and professional lives. I am yet to figure out how and when we decide to act only on specific cases until coerced in acting/taking a stand. The best part is most of us even realise that by postponing or not acting now - the ultimate looser could your self ( this definitely sounds cliched) .The consequence - guilt takes over and start repenting ( If I had blah, blah, blah ) .. I have gone through this innumerable times. Will not waste time now - its been to much..

How do I get over this. Act now ! First things first do all things have been wanting to do .. dont look back.. do now ..I am offf .. I am not getting pulled ... free again

Existential angst

Coming to my experiences of writing again - I used to think I knew a lot of things on diverse subjects but to my dismay found out that when I started writing either on my trials and tribulations or of those wordly wisdoms had so much shallow understandings - which made me again go into a tailspin. Reason -- probably:- from my experience I have seen the attention spans are getting so small . peep into any home and see the new meaning of "surfing" - flipping through channels when even without going through couple of frames. From instant noodles to instant lotteries ( though never dabled in lottery). I have seen the stock market from close quarters - people can hardly wait for making that profit but wait endlessly for recovering the loss. So impatient so restless ; the need for instant gratification has never been so intense. Get bored so fast have this feeling always life is moving ahead and what ever and where ever is the race to win loosing ....have to move on. Hardly have a fix on anything in the bargain. Good or bad dont know. In the whole bargain what has happned is tend to become impulsive , speed seems to be more important than accuracy ... this results into constantly moving from one thing to another without getting into depth a lot of times. Is this the same behaviour others experience or my “Existential angst” as someone put it recently.

Virtues of being a VIP in India or rather being treated like one

Its surely a virtue to be treated like an VIP particularly in a public place. I have been to Tirupati lot of times and as lady luck has it and due to some influence circumvent having to stand in the long queue each time. In a country like India swarming with people all around - it feels great to have that privilege in a place like Tirupati known for serpentine queues and the never ending wait for that one glimpse of the lord. Like wise on my recent visit on 25th november we found out that my landlord's brother in law is part of the elite security force in Tirupati after we generally contacted him in the temple .Though we had the normal tickets ( even in god's abode there is differential pricing - pay more to reach faster ) after standing in the line for an hour our man took us out and ushered us directly into the main temple by getting couple of gates opened (what a favor though not explicitly asked) and even allowed us to stand in front of the lord for about 90 seconds - people who have visited Tirupati would realise how precious are those seconds.
Incidentally the biggest VVIP of India today Mrs Sonia Gandhi had also paid a visit and was amused to find out in the papers that she like a humble citizen of the country went though the normal line ( though she was alone - what a farce ) and we had the great fortune of marching into the temple through the front door much to the dismay and chagrin of the on looking junta who could not digest our sudden transformation from ordinary blokes to a VIP being courted by the men in uniform.
In the our democratic setup the crown has been replaced by the red siren and the numbers of cars in the escort directly proportional to how many Vs can be added before the VIP. Though our moment of glory was very short lived it was nevertheless as with those special moments an exhilarating experience to have the special darshan.