The Blog

This probably has to be the biggest joke ever. First George Bush blames the Indians for the world food crisis. It seems we eat too much. Quite amazing, considering that the average American eats the same as 2 or 3 Indians. It seems that George Bush believes that only the western world can enjoy benefits of a higher standard of living.

And  now, the World Bank decides that India is to blame for the world food crisis as it has banned export of food. While this is a better excuse than George Bush’s explanation, it still is quite derogatory. India’s first duty is to her citizens and not to the rest of the world. Once her citizens are fed, only then can she think about exporting extra food.

Sometimes these arguments also make no sense!

This week we have Prasanna in Bangalore. He is one of the top topcoders from India. With his great record, Shalin and I took a treat out of him. We were out at hypnos, where we saw this group of three girls sitting.

Now for some background. Prasanna is a multi tasking expert. He manages some n girls at one time. And we wanted to see him in action.

The stage was set. Three girls, no guys around, and Prasanna’s up to challenge. Suddenly, he gets his chance, two of the girls come out, and the third one is alone. Sadly for him, she was the least cutest of the group. Anyway, here is what happened,

Prasanna walks away. Seems familiar.

But I have to hand it to him. He stuck to his word, made a move, and both Shalin and I were left speechless. Unlike the last time when I found it insanely funny, this made me gain new respect for the dude. Prasanna, way to go!

UPDATE: Hmmm. I have just woken up now, and am feeling hungover. The funny thing is that we did *NOT* drink anything. /me wonders what happened!

*drumrolls*

And, introducing the scheduler Don, Peter Zijlstra

…Anirudha Srikkanth! I thought it was embarrassing when my parents’ friends and they talked (about me, about their childhood antics and my antics). But hearing the commentary at the IPL match, ok! I’ve life easy. At least all that does not get broadcast live into the living rooms of India.

Sunil Gavaskar to Anirudha: Hi Anirudha, this is Sunny here. Don’t you dare call me uncle.

Anirudha: Ok unc..sir.

Oh oh and, Sunny to Anirudha: Anirudha, your dad is asking what time will you be back home today.

Oh man, to think that happening. My life is so much better

Uthappa oh Uthappa! Why oh why can you not place a value on your wicket.

Nehra, why did you need to run the third run?!

Mumbai lose by 1 run

Mumbai Indians versus Kings XI Punjab. Sachin Tendulkar run out. Sachin raises his bat, and tells Uthappa to hang on to the end. The poise, the action, a moment that I shall always remember.

And at the moment, I feel, Uthappa has to be the stupidest person in that team. WHY OH WHY can he not play proper cricket and put a price on his wicket.

Hopefully Mumbai still wins this game from here.

New Delhi railway station! I’ve been to all of the long distance train stations in bombay, VT, Bandra, LTT, but I have never seen a mass of humanity that I saw at 5 am at the New Delhi railway station (probably because of its proximity to UP, Bihar ). It is very easy to discount the effect Indian Railways has on the masses, looking at the way the budget airlines are taking on New India. Indian Railways is still as relevant today as it was in 1947.

The railways is certainly not efficient. Taking 34 hours to do the trip from Bangalore to Delhi in its premier (and thereby fastest) trains is certainly not the most efficient method. Especially when at times the airfare is lesser than the train fare. But it probably is the most enjoyable way. A three hour flight is decidedly an impersonal one. It is certainly an impatient one, and you can see that the moment it ends with long queues of passengers in a hurry to get out of the aircraft. On the other hand a 34 hr journey is long enough to overcome the initial awkwardness, get to know facets of your fellow passengers which they choose to share.

When I planned this vacation, people thought it was weird that  wanted to go by train as opposed to by air. I feel vindicated at this moment. This is the third day I am in a train and I don’t feel like I have wasted a moment. It was my belief that the train journey would be an important part of the vacation, one of its most enjoyable experience, and it holds true. After this one, I have the toy train from Kalka to Shimla and then at the fag end of the trip is the last one, the return from Delhi to Bangalore. And at this moment in time, I feel the train journeys have achieved their objectives

I start the blog posts about my vacations. There are some which relate the story of the vacation, others which I wrote while travelling. So some timeframes might not match.

/me is back.

Will post more blog posts about the vacation as I start catching up!

As an update, I have done my hotel bookings and railway reservations. Now to just convince my manager to give me leave .

I’ve finalized the whole route now, and I’m dropping ganga for now. I’ll be doing just the mountains this time. The itinerary finally is full. It is as follows

9/4 -> Depart in Rajdhani for New Delhi

10/4 -> Spent in transit

11/4 -> Arrive in Delhi, spend day there

12/4 -> Leave Delhi early morning in the himalayan queen, Kalka Shimla train, one of the major highlights

13/4 -> Leave Shimla for Kaza, with an overnight stopover at Kalpa. (This should be on the first bus to Kalpa)

14/4 -> Reach Kaza (this is the district headquarters of Spiti) (This should be on the last bus to Kaza)

15, 16 -> Kaza, relax. enjoy the sights.

17/4 -> Leave Kaza for Manali (In the last Bus to Manali). Overnight stay at Manali

18/4-> Leave Manali for Delhi (by bus)

19/4 -> Leave Delhi for Bangalore. (by Rajdhani again).

Also the map has been updated.

Yay, it does look like it is finally happening

TODO:

1. Hotel booking for one night’s stay at Shimla

2. Find out prices of Memory Cards, and try to get a couple of 2G ones for the camera

3. Get headphones for mobile (need to listen to music )

4. Get clothes.

5. Get more info on the weather.