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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Nandi Hills@night - Unraveling the Magic and 'Mist'ery of nature...

Note: I tend to be quite descriptive. If you just want to how Nandi is at night then let me tell you that  there are no words that can describe and no photos that can capture the beauty the magic of Nandi hills at night. But that won't stop me from trying :)


If you have been to Nandi hills to watch the sun rise or the sun set, believe me, you have not seen Nandi hills at all! Actually, you haven't seen anything at all! Move over Coorg and Chikmaglur! We have Nandi hills.. And for all those who think I am crazy, it's quite natural. Coz in most probability, you have not seen Nandi hills in the night/ early morning. And I mean by means of over night stay. And if you have seen it, I know you won't be disagreeing.


First of all, a hearty to thanks to AG - the man behind the arrangement and to the caretaker at the hills for having us. Now to the story of the best place on earth (The use of only superlatives is the Nandi hill effect.. I know there are better places but I this is the best I have been to!)


My team (ex-team by now) had this habit of doing a self sponsored outing at irregular intervals of time. The first was Bear mountain and then Chikamaglur and then Sakleshpur. So this was a tradition that we were quite proud of coz no other team was doing something similar. And even if they did, they could never have fun like we do! And thats thanks to the team mates and more so to our managers! We can be ourselves in front of them in such trips and this has really brought us all together to the point that we can proudly call ourselves as a small set of diverse ppl forming a happy, normal dysfunctional family..


So after the latest trip which happened almost 6 months back, we were eager to get one more trip done.. But we were having trouble choosing a place/ time where everybody could join.. And this kept postponing till other turn of events in the company forced us to rethink, regroup and organize a get-together.. asap.. and that's how a trip to Nandi hills was planned.. no, not a trip.. that would be normal.. an over night stay at Nandi hills was planned.. we were supposed to go Friday night, stay, have fun, eat dinner and have breakfast in the morning and leave..


Ofcourse, at that point, none of us had an inkling of what we were in for (except AG who had been doing it for 15 yrs "straight" as he puts it and GR whose college used to be at the base of the hill). Now here is some background. No one is allowed into Nandi hills after 6.30 PM. There are government guest houses there but not for general public. But AG knew ppl (he always does) and he got us some rooms there..


We were planning to leave office by 5PM on Friday and reach early. But after a number of glitches which almost cancelled the trip, we were finally ready to go as planned, at 6.15PM (as usual).. Four cars - AG, GR, JP & SY, 16 ppl, one destination.. With AG deftly delegating work to others and guiding them, we got all that we needed (Alcohol for everyone, juice & red bull for me, lots of ice, snacks, chicken and baby corn) and reached by around 10 (thanks to the traffic all the way there which we didn't realize coz of the IPL match between MI & RCB). 10PM - a time when you would never be allowed to enter Nandi hills. But we found the caretaker waiting for us with a smile. And then began 6 hrs of pure fun..


To maintain the dignity of ppl involved and to cut the story short, m gonna just condense the main points - Awesome cooking by the ppl at the stay.. The best baby corn manchurian I have had.. And wonderful rasam that everyone just drank and finished resulting in ppl eating just the briyani for dinner.. Lots of drinking and lots more of talking.. 


In between, we came to know that RCB won the match.. With most of them being RCB fans, the mood was setting right.. and then someone gave an idea of posing topless shirtless in the cold wind outside for pictures.. And we stepped out into the balcony.. and stepped right into a thick mist the clouds.. Yes, you read that right - clouds.. it wasn't mist. We were actually in the clouds!! I have always had elders tell me to never walk with my head in the clouds.. And I always used to wonder if that was even possible.. On that night, I knew.. And it was exhilarating! Imagine walking bare chested with the cold wind blowing through, the dew and moisture settling on your body and giving a slight ticklish chill while you are surrounded by thin white clouds.. It's hard to imagine unless you have been there and seen that..


That's one thing about the clouds.. it looks so white and full and fluffy like cotton pieces, from the ground.. But up there, it was just a thin film of white everywhere.. almost like smoke.. until you look up and see the thickness above and realize you are inside a cloud! Ofcourse, it's too dark to actually see the clouds but you sure can feel it! And I can't think of anything that can beat that feeling! We did a small walk at around 3AM amongst the cloud till Tipu point. And THAT is a WALK TO REMEMBER!


The highlight of that night was the game we played where each one of us had to tell our fav song and why it was our fav. And the song would be sung by all who knew the lyrics (which was mostly AG) followed by a detailed analysis by AG, abt the person based on the song he chose.. This was quite fun and went for more than hour.. And the best part was when VCP who was a kannadiga said 2 hindi songs as his fav while SRK who was Telugu, said a Kannada song as his fav which over joyed and pissed JP to the max. It was fun watching JP slurring remarks at all the Kannada ppl there who were telling out hindi songs as their fav..  In all, a complete fun time and we actually got to know something special about each other..

We finally slept at around 4.30AM and got up at 8.30AM and went to Tipu point and have a look. This time we could actually see nothing - Just white everywhere! And then it was getting late to return so  we came back, brushed and had hot pongal and vada served graciously by the staff there..

We left Nandi Hills by around 10.30AM and reached back at 12PM - quite exhausted and a bit hung over.. but each one of us was having the same thought - we had stayed & witnessed a piece of heaven on earth! The memory of which would forever remain with us...

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Gender Equality - The other side of the story

Warning: This post is to be taken a with huge amounts of salt! If your mind is not open, don't even bother reading any further!!!


Fight for Gender Equality
Gender Equality has been a topic of debate for decades now and we have actually matured over the years to the point where an amount of equality has been achieved, atleast in cities and major towns.. And yet, I see more urban girls "fighting" for equality for themselves.. And I simply can't understand why.. Yes, I know there are guys who are complete assholes.. but girls, what about all the other guys like us in your lives? Why can't you appreciate us for the way we are? Why do we have to face the music for what the others of our kind do?


So, at the cost of being branded a MCP, I feel that it is my duty (as part of the lesser privileged sex of the new era) to give a gentle note to these girls/ ladies/ women:
  • I know that generations of male ancestors have been controlling and oppressing female ancestors.. but that's something they did.. you should not take revenge on us for the mistakes that our ancestors did, especially since the new age male is both understanding and accommodating!
  • It is about time you accepted that you do have equality and that what you are actually looking for seems more like complete domination!
  •  It is also about time that you started treating guys with some equality by giving us certain privileges that you so nicely enjoy..
Any girl reading this, before you start searching for my address to send over some goons to kill me or beat me up pretty badly, just hear me out. Girls now-a-days have so much more advantage over guys that it feels unfair for the fairer sex to still claim that they are still oppressed! 




Apart from the fact that girls are earning equally (and sometimes more) than guys and most of the white collar jobs have girls in any high position that a guy can be in, there is also the following advantages that girls have over boys which I feel has been taken for granted:
  1. No matter how dark you are or how fair we are, you are still the fairer sex!
  2. Unlike the animal kingdom where the male of the species is more attractive, here it is you females who have the upper hand.
  3. You naturally have more pain bearing capabilities.
  4. You are genetically engineered to multi task (yes, you can handle work, home and children better than we can! Although I have started seeing now-a-days some ladies without the gene and some guys with it!)
  5. You mature sooner than guys do
  6. You have reservations in train, buses and even in colleges and other institutions.
  7. If there is ever an accident involving a lady driver and a gent driver (irrespective of the number of wheels or even the presence of them), no matter who is at fault, everyone helps up the lady and scolds the guy for careless driving.. Okay, I know girls are physically weaker, but hey, I have fallen down and scraped myself pretty badly too, someone can help me up!! And this is true to the point that a guy driver with a lady behind gets the upper hand on the situation involving a single guy driver!
  8. If you wanted to, you could get away with almost anything with a smile and battling of eyelashes
  9. If you need help - be it a drop home or getting food from outside, you just have to ask politely and there are a bunch of guys ready to do it for you - even if the guy is not a good friend of yours. If I am stuck with some work and ask anyone other than my close friends to get me some parcel, I ll either end up going without dinner or miss my deadline to avoid dying of hunger.
  10. Girls can hug/ kiss & sleep on one another or comment lewdly about each other and be considered nothing more than soul sisters. A guy does anything more than hug another guy and he is surely gay! (the only exception is when he is very drunk in which case he can give a kiss on the cheek to another guy but still nothing that matches to what girls can do to each other when sober!)
  11. You can dress up and behave a bit manly and be considered nothing but a tomboy.. I shudder to even think about what comments a guy would get if he tried anything girly!
  12. As children, you would have played with barbie dolls and with cars.. Boys had only half your choice..
  13. Have you noticed how ladies magazines and gents magazine both have pictures of women only? No matter how they look? Nobody even wants to notice us (unless we are cleanly shaven all over and have 6-8 packs!) You really expect more attention than that?
  14. Even with cliches like "Only a woman can understand another woman's pain", women have so many forums to talk about their problems and have a sympathetic ear from both sexes. How many guys can actually open up about their problems without the fear of being ridiculed or ignored?
  15. When a relationship ends due to external factors (e.g. a love failure coz the parents didn't accept), you girls can somehow convince yourself that it had to happen and be practical about things.. I am not saying you don't get hurt. But the fact remains that you are able to keep it buried inside and move on with life. Do men have this capacity? looking at the number of devdases, heck no!
  16. Good or bad, smoking & drinking was a privilege for the men. Now women have the same privilege or considering things like ladies night, even more! {personal note: I am against both sexes drinking beyond limit and smoking altogether}
  17. You have the natural advantage in any industry having visual or aural appeal (news, tele-marketing, ads, posters etc.)
  18. You have the ultimate prestige of motherhood! No one else can take that kind of glory away from you. It's one of the most beautiful things in life and you are the means to a new life. What more can you ask for?
So we are stronger than you physically! So what! That's probably the only thing we have and it's more to care for you and protect you. You feel less than equal coz the average guy is physically stronger than the average lady? The only thing I can think of (and which was also pointed by a friend who is incidentally a girl) is that we can rape you and you can't rape us. But come on, how many guys do actually go around raping women? Is that even a power?? Besides, it's not something that any guy in his right mind would want to do.. And it's illegal..


You are wrongly showing your anger/ discontent on men whereas your real problem is social stigma and the society at large. Which is not controlled by men alone! Saying that you want to break free from the shackles of the society is different from  saying that you want to be liberated from male domination. I don't have a problem with your cause/ goal. It's the terminology. We have to change the society's thinking on female foeticide, sati, prostitution and the sorts. But it's a disease of the society which we guys also want to abolish.


So where is it that you modern girls find the the inequality in? I agree that you have fought your way to where you are, but I think it's about time you stopped brandishing your weapons on us guys who are no where like the ones you started to fight with. In fact, it's us guys who should be fighting for some equality now! Guys! Let's unite and fight for our rights! Equality is our birth right too! Right?