Forty Eight Wonderful Hours: Part IV

Epilogue

Nagame Hai.. Shikave Hai..
Kisse Hai.. Baatein Hai..
Baatein bhool jati hai..
Yaadein yaad aati hai..

Even after three fairly long posts, I don't think I am done. I can go on writing about how I lost my glasses, what results when software engineers start building sand castles, or what people think of when they hear terms like 'Single Parent'. I can go on. But the Oracle already told us, "Everything that has a beginning, has an end". So I'll stop here. It might seem too formal, but I want to take this opportunity to thank all the guys who made the trip so wonderful. So Thank You Amit, Charuta, Khyati, Lalit, Manish, Vijay and Zarin (in alphabetic order). You guys Rock!!

Let's start planning the next one..

Forty Eight Wonderful Hours: Part III

[Earlier installments: Part 1 and Part 2]

Sun and Sand (and Frisbee)

Gajab ka hai din..
Dekho jara..
Ye deewanapan..
Socho jara..

We began the next day early, everyone was eager to get to the beach. Me, with Manish and Vijay first took a long walk along the shore. The beach is beautiful, and mercifully was uncrowded. One thing we noticed though, the sand layers are very thin, with all the sand being dug for construction, it could become a problem in future. After having a wonderful breakfast of pohe, it was time for water sports. It was here that some of us (including me) discovered our hidden talent for 'wave Frisbee' (a word coined in the trip). Now my Orkut profile can have a sport name under sports. Yippee!! We had our lunch at a certain Mr.Thosar, because Mr.Bapat (who is famous for his Modaks) was closed and Mr.Kelkar would not serve Modaks and junta wanted Modaks. The food was good but not great. We decided to take some rest and return to the beach in the evening. I personally would have preferred to go immediately, but being a democratic guy (do whatever the majority does), decided to wait. Would have liked to take a nap, but a certain individual (who should remain anonymous (for my own protection)) made sure I could not, with his 100dB snores. People were discussing heavy stuff around me, I wonder where do they get their energy from.

Not just yet another beach

"Ek se bhale do.."

There was some confusion regarding the afternoon's plan. We had two options, play on our beach, or visit the nearby Srivardhan beach. We finally decided to make a quick trip to Srivardhan. Am I glad we made that decision! The beach is simply Mahaan!! It is particularly famous for the amazingly intricate patterns made by crabs in the sand (A tip of the hat goes to Lalit here for telling me what they are). I simply can't convey their beauty in words. And the beach is great for playing catch-catch, a distant memory from my childhood and a game I still love. The road is great (beauty, not condition) too, you'll want to stop and click a snap on almost every turn (we did click quite a few). For completeness, aate waqt car me vapas gala fada ;-). Went straight to the beach after returning, for one more round of Frisbee, till it became just a smudge in darkness.

Games and Stuff

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

I seem to learn at least one new game per trip. Last time, it was 20 questions. This time it was Truth or Dare. The idea is simple. Take a bottle, rotate it, whoever it points to after stopping has to choose Truth (answer a question truthfully) or dare(do some task). I had imagined the questions would be funny, but people ask some pretty serious stuff. Most of us chose truth; it was a good opportunity to learn more about fellas I spend most of my time with. And the kind of questions people ask you constitutes some good feedback. It's nice to have it once in a while, helps you obey Wil's rule(expressed in the subtitle). As for me, some very personal stuff came out, not sure if it is a good sign or bad. Top lesson: I have a lot to learn (Manish's words). Best dare was Khyati's, she actually made some other group on the beach lower their volume. Fundoo..

After this came the card games. Again, I knew exactly one card game that nobody seems to play these days. So somebody had to explain a new game to me. Thanks to Amit for choosing 'Dare' here. The game was blackjack (not the version from '21' though). I managed to not lose in both the games we played (actually won the first), but I was really playing like an idiot, just shows how far plain dumb luck can take you.

We wanted to leave early the next day, but I could not sleep, kept wandering in and out of the room almost for the whole night. The return journey was fun, with shouting, photos and jokes, all over again. Best moment: guys from the other car stop to buy bhaji(vegetables) on a very crowded street, leaving us to wonder abhi to yahi the, ab kaha gaye.. Reached Pune around 2PM...

Forty Eight Wonderful Hours: Part II

[You can read Part I here].

The Journey or Gala Fadana 101

Kaisa ajab ye safar hai..
Socho to har ek hi bekhabar hai..
Usako jana kidhar hai..
Jo waqt aaye, jane kya dikhaye..

Amit, Lalit and me rode with Manish. We decided to go via Khopoli as Tamhini ghat was deemed insecure. I had a USB loaded with fundoo songs (fundoo=chosen by me), but Manish insisted on playing a Marathi song at a particular offset of 92 in a particular CD. It's a good song, but after hearning it for what seemed like a bazillion times we finally convinced him to change. Then began the singing shouting. Fortunately there are quite a few songs that we all like and we had them, so no conflicts there. And shouting we did! Top songs: Dooba Dooba, Dhipadi Dhipang, Duniya, Na tum jano na hum. Was hearing some of these after a long long gap, that added to the effect. The best moment was when everybody was quiet and listening and Manish shouts "Sing!!" and everybody starts singing a different song!! It was so spontaneous and we laughed like mad after that. The IndiPop-2 CD was suddenly back in demand!! And you know how scenic the Konkan roads are, some amazing snaps were clicked, but Blogger is too slow today. I'll upload them sometime later.

Campfire or The hidden side of everything (stolen from Freakanomics)

Jali ko aag kahte hai and so on..

We reached the resort of Mr. Puri sometime around 10PM. The rooms were better than I expected and it was very close to the sea, which I liked. We could hear the roaring sea and accepted the invitation and the next thing on the plan (after dinner) was Campfire. Once it was lighted, I just could not let it die. I kept putting in wood, single mindedly, just wanted to keep it burning. I guess other people were similarly possessed, laughing uncontrollably or running with burning stems in their hands. That was fun. I did something extremely stupid meanwhile, wanted to break a stem in two, did not realize that one end was inside the fire, took it, grabbed the cooler end in the right hand, not so cooler end in the left and tried to break it. Burned like Hell, left marks at least in 6 different places, but no major injuries. Sky was dazzling above and it felt nice to sync up with it. And it feels amazing to walk in complete darkness into the sea. For the first time in trip I guess, I was quiet (people thanked me for that ;-). Some guys wanted to keep it burning over the whole night, but majority decided to take a quick nap and return to the beach in the early morning. Thus ended the first day of the trip.

Forty Eight Wonderful Hours: Part I

Prologue

Ham rahe ya na rahe kal..
Pal, yaad aayenge ye pal..

This is about the amazing weekend trip to DiveAgar. As is the case with our group, the plans were brewing for quite some time, and nobody was sure if and when they'll materialize. But luckily for us, Amit and Lalit started their GM diet, to celebrate their Chicken divas we went to Four Seasons, and the thing quickly settled itself after a heavy lunch (which I believe was a significant factor). So I would like to thank GM diet. If you think I am stretching it a bit too far, you clearly need to read my blog more regularly :).

Planning or How I got here“

"It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark".

After this came the planning phase. My task was to buy a frisbee. Went to BB to buy one, but they were almost out of stock. Bought whatever was available (which turned out to be good, but I had to demonstrate that). And it was fun to wander in the toys section. So we added a volleyball, a plastic cricket bat (Lalit's idea) and few tennis balls to our small collection. And got all this for sodexhos, which just made us happier. Damn, I should have bought the Batman too..
[OK, quote kuch jyada bhari tha mere task ke liye, lekin chalta hai ;)]

The Beginning or The Murphy Override

It's a late goodbye; Such a late goodbye..

We were supposed to leave at around 1:00PM on Friday, but as it happens, news of an unexpected webex session arrived just in time to cause some unexpected delay. But that gave me time to buy some stuff that I was too lazy to buy earlier and had convinced myself I can do without, but realized otherwise only when we reached there. We left Office at about 2:30PM. Two cars, eight people. Our first stop was the Gas station near Varje. It was here that we noticed a flat tyre. Another unexpected delay. There were two punctures actually and the mechanic did not quite fix one of them in the first attempt. We made him redo the whole process. We were to sync up with Vijay's car at SoulKari. One of the best South Indian hotels in or around Pune. Especially, the Ginger-Pepper (or Pepper-Ginger, not very sure) rice was delicious. And the filter coffee. But we failed to realize that Mr.Murphy was waiting for us outside, with another flat tyre. Or to be more precise, the same tyre which we had fixed about 30 mins ago. Finding a mechanic and so on, all over again!! But by this time we had gotten quite used to unexpected delays, so that did not bother us that much. We were back on our way soon..

So far I've talked only about first 2 hours of the trip, bur I can see that the whole thing would be too big for a single post. I guess I'll stop here for now.

If you have trouble deciding..

Darwin to the rescue. Guys, (you know who you are), this is for you..
[Not sure if this (the story)'ll hurt someone's sensibilities. It's an amusing li'l story if you ask me ;-)].

From TIME

25 best blogs 2009.
Some changes to my Blogroll expected as I check these out. Currently only BA makes it to my top blog list ;-). There is one link though, that I would like to point out to GM diet fans (whose numbers are increasing at an alarming rate ;-), slashfood. Looks like some useful stuff.
And for what it's worth, here are 5 most overrated blogs, again from TIME.

Enjoy!!

A wonderful Journey

When I was about 11, construction began of what would become my present day home. The construction site was a good distance away from my then current house, and I generally escaped to it after school or on holidays. I enjoyed watching the process, but also during this time I acquired a new hobby, collecting beautiful stones. This was natural, the whole area was under active construction and it was easy to set your eyes on an unusual looking rock. The hobby faltered after a summer or two, and became a distant memory, but I guess a part of that fascination lived on. So when I spotted Journeys from the Center of the Earth on my last trip to Crosswords, I could not resist buying it. And what a Gem of a book! The official topic is Geology and its effects on civilization. The author focuses on Mediterranean, but what he has to say is widely applicable. Descriptions are aided by wonderful, often full page, color photographs. So if you want to know

a) Why and how of Plate tectonics.
b) What is the difference between Basalt and Granite and how they differ from Limestone.
c) Who were the first people to build underwater.
d) How people measure atmospheric lead content over a period of thousands of years.
e) Why Greeks had wider 'Post-and-Lintel' structures than Egyptians.
among many other things, you should read this book. But let me give you some answers right away (writing this from memory). 'c' is 'Romans' and 'e' is that they used Marble instead of Limestone which has better tensile strength.

There is another area where this book can help, even if you don't give a damn about basalt/granite/limestone/whatever. I am talking about the need of an increased awareness of ecology and the dangers that loom ahead. Watching the earth evolve and seeing the extent of the impact of the slightest geological change on how people lived might go a long way in creating and nurturing that awareness. And I guess with Global Warming and stuff, we are better off with that awareness than without.

Highly Recommended!!

My Struggle..

Against the dirt filled cabinet. Against the dead IDE bus. Against the erratic SMPS. Against missing screws and screwdriver. I emerge triumphant. With a live PC..

Ohk, ohk, I am making it sound dramatic. Truth being, I just could not get my lazy ass to fix the PC for almost six months. Which I did yesterday. Feels good to have my movie collection back. Plus it's amusing to look at the stuff on the PC. It's like looking at a snapshot of my life from six months back. Life was different back then, to be sure. I used to live at a different place, with different people. Living with roommates means there is a common set of movies, songs etc which forms the background of your life; different people, a different kind of background. And a thousand other things..

So life's changing. For better or for worse, I cannot judge.

Useful Link

Enjoy!!

Innumeracy

Science is a way of trying not to fool yourselves. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

-Richard Feynman

More than anything else, this quote kept coming back to me while reading Innumeracy. It talks about 'Mathematical illiteracy and its consequences', which might sound heavy, but rest assured, the book is a real page turner. Conditional Probability, Prisoner's Dilemma, Statistics and errors and so on combined with a healthy dose of anecdotes (The author made money in Atlantic City using card counting. 21 comes to my mind) and fun trivia (rate of growth of human hair (10^-8 miles/hr)) means you just can't keep it down. More importantly, it tells you why this stuff is important, something you won't get by reading the Wikipedia entry. And important these things are! Just take a look at claims about economic situation, poll results, junta ki mang and so on. We clearly need something to check which (if any) of these make sense.

The book also discusses psuedoscience and this is a more apparent problem. Just turn on your TV and count the number of Babas, every channel seems to have at least one, with his own brand of help (cards, numbers and so on). News items proclaiming duniya ka anth and alien encounters abound (Some channels seem to exist for this very purpose). And these guys have a significant audience.

This book can clearly help. I wish everybody reads it.

Know Your Editor

Learning Curves
(My respect for Emacs users (of whom I have met only one) increased a thousandfold :).

P.S. A pertinent comment from /.

"Editors" are for the weak. "Editing" implies that you can make a mistake in the first place. I use:
cat >file

Enjoy!!

Luck By Chance

Watched Luck By Chance today. Now, this is a movie I was waiting for, coz I am a fan of all three, Konkona, Farhan and Hrithik. And it did not disappoint me. It's a film about films (meta-film, anybody?) and the extraordinary role chance plays in our beloved fillam industry. Konkona and Farhan, playing two aspiring actors, sharply portray the kinds of choices a young person faces. Plus I liked Rishi Kapoor's role. Few bits felt a bit overstretched though, like Konkona winning the Fridge in the end. The song 'Sapno se bhare naina' is an absolute gem.

The message of the movie (if there is such a thing) is simple, things are not always what they appear to be. But as a viewer, you can see everybody, so you know what things are really like. What about the real world, where you don't have that vantage point and things are even more fuzzy? Back to Chance, I guess..

Enjoy!!

For the touch typist inside you

The Perfect Gift.
(Discovered the link on Coding Horror).

Good read..

Phil's take on Skeptic Etiquetts.. (from BA)
Don't miss Allyson's post linked in from there..

Enjoy!!