~~Trip to Mystique Land-Day 6~~

It was like getting up on weekend after a hectic week @ work. After having morning tea we got ready to explore the city.Breakfast consisted of pancakes and Momos, turned to be one of our favourite delicacies. We had Momos where we stopped for rest of the journey. Momos are simple veg stuffed in rice flour which is streamed. this is served with Chili chutney.When served boiling hot its tastes delicious. Once done with our breakfast we hired a local taxi to go to Sikkim zoo. Which was just seven kilometers from our place but most of the journey was uphill.

When you badly need to lose weight or need a place for work out ,Sikkim zoo is the place to be. The whole zoo is located in a hill and you need to walk quite a distance to have to look at different kinds of animals they have kept there. As KG said Red Panda is one of the kind which exists only in these regions and state people are proud of it. Their transport services is called as Red Panda services.When we reached the zoo it was a deserted place expect for me and KG no one took the risk of doing a trek to have a full visit. Sometimes the trek will be useless when walked more than 1 Km to see a Himalayan black bear but our wonderful the bear was sleeping inside the den. The zoo keeper was friendly guy maybe surprised to see us there ,he let us to pet the panda and even take photographs with it.

From there we went Ganesh Tok the signs of Hinduism prevailing in that region, the temple was located in a small hill and we need to climb that.From there we could get an excellent view ofKanchenjunga mountain range. Ganesha idol was looking majestic and more colorful. After having a simple prayer we left the place before having a place of momos in the near by shop.

From there we went to Enchen monastery one of the oldest one in that region. This is the old gurukula kind of places where children are sent when they young.They are made to study and learn stuffs from the monks who manage the place.There we saw kid monks playing with stuffs and doing some crazy things. There were prayer wheels all around the place and we were asked to rotate it in the clockwise direction. We did as long as our hand went tired.

From there we were dropped at MGmart,were planned to shop for the rest of the evening.First we stopped at a Bengali sweet shop and had two wonderful rasogullas. Then we went inside lal bazaar. We stopped at sweater shops,there were piles of it very difficult to choose from.Prices start from 100rs onwards and for 300rs you could get a decent one. Apart from that KG got a Ganesha wall paper,he later told me it was glowing in the night, maybe because of his bakthi.

From there we walked to lal bazaar complex, that complex built by the state government is the biggest market which is frequented by the locals.You get all kinds of fresh vegetables, fruits and all other grocery items.In the 1st 2nd and 3rd floor the place was flooded with clothes shoes and other accessory shops. KG got a weirdo watch which I hope he will post it in one of the freaky Friday pics. I asked for a similar piece but only one was available.We left the place walking back to our room.While we were walking past a saloon shop people there called us inside. Realising that we didn't have a shave for that entire week we went inside and had a perfect shave.He pleaded me to have a hair cut by saying he will cut like Shah Rukh Khan style but knowing that the guy will regret once he places the scrissors on my head I politely rejected his offer.

After that we went to Tibetan coffee shop had a cup of tea since I got tired of coffee ,Then came back to the room relaxed for a while. Night we tried our luck at the Sikkim lottery,its a kind of online lottery and the ticket costs you 10rs and within an hour we would know the result. We enjoyed a bit sight seeing by relaxing ourselves in the benches of MG Mart. Then we tried dinner at a Tibetan restaurant.We had noodles which was plain and bland. Since it was hot we managed to gulp it. We went back to our room with all the things scattered around ,we needed to pack all those junks back inside and leave the place next day.

Click here to read KG's version

Click here to read day 7

(Will end in next episode)

Movie I saw..

Friday when I had to restart my weekend plans my colleague asked whether I m interested to come for GOA a much hyped tamil movie which is getting released that weekend. Since I had nothing special to do I said fine lets go, after few minutes he said "Sri I booked the tickets but I could manage to get only in 2nd row". It been quite a while I went to theater to watch a tamil movie,last one was in Cochin. The last tamil movie I watched in Tamil Nadu was during my college days.

He had booked tickets in Sangam theater which took 15 minutes by walk from my house. I had a bottle of miranda with me ,the security guard checked whether its sealed and smelled it checking whether its not liquor! It was a lovely to experience the whistles,noises and claps all around after a long long time. The atmosphere was buzzing waiting for the movie to start.

The movie is a treat for your eyes ,set in Goa you know whats gonna come and director never fails to fulfill our expectations. Since I was in the second row I could watch it more closely. Its a one line story where three guys from the village are on a mission to find their respective (foreign) woman in Goa.

The full movie is a laugh riot and you will enjoy it,if you are the kind of person like me who will laugh for the every silly jokes cracked. I have attached the pictures of heroines who have acted in this film, hoping it will give you an inspiration to watch it ;)

~~Weekend planned by Mum~~

I planned for a trip home this weekend

Chances these kinds of conversation occur many times ;)

Some two weeks back my mum called

Mum: Book your tickets for the weekend on Jan 30th,31st , we will go somewhere !

Sri: Where?

Mum: You choice ,you can drive anywhere ,Ooty Kodaikanal where ever you like .

Sri: Ok fine ,weekend is blocked no other plans from my side

Last week

Sri: Amma , decided where we are planning to go.

Mum: Sri I have got a program on Saturday will be occupied till evening. But anyways Sunday is there right , we will plan one day outing

Sri: Hmmm(not convinced enough)

Mum: Hey we can start Saturday night itself(!!! where?) or you can take Monday off ,will ask appa also to take off. fine

Sri:Let me see

Friday morning

Mum: Sri ,this Sunday I have a felicitary function( paaratu vizha!) and I cant say no to that.

Sri: Great!

Mum: Hey you can come to the function (and clap hands) people will be happy to see you.

Sri: I will do it from here!

The good thing is I never booked tickets for the trip because I know what will happen if my mum plans anything :))

~~Chat at Coffee Day~~

On republic day I met two of my old room mates, we stayed together in Cochin when we were first posted there.After few years in the job they quit the company and went on to do their MBA. They passed out during mid of 2009 one of the worst times to get out from B school although both of them were lucky enough end up having a jobs,one in an IT company and other in Web start up.

We were discussing about our life in general and it was pathetic to see them slogging hours in their respective companies, one was saying that he is working way past 12 everyday and other had unrealistic targets to meet everyday. Compared to what they do my job seems to be heaven to me. Not even six months into their job they got frustrated and looking for opportunities to switch companies. Thinking of it,I m lazy enough to update my resume!

Yea they have doubled their salaries on due course with more workload but there are many things which you need to sacrifice to get those! Given their life styles I would never do an MBA just to have growth in my career.

~~new version of old song~~

This republic day zoom TV has retaken "Phil Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" with new sets of artists.

I still like the old one though! In the new version Bollywood personalities have taken a front seat!

This new one is agonisingly 15 minutes long and the video I got in youtube is split into two part

~~Trip to Mystique Land-Day 5 (part-2)~~

After taking pics with the Yak we stopped for lunch at Changu, there were lots of shops around and we went to a shop which was less crowded so that we can finish off the lunch quickly.We ordered two plates of Maggie noodles.While waiting for the food to arrive we were looking outside,there were minute particles of dust like thing falling on the ground. The girl in the shop told something like"ye mousam ke paheli barff".Since my hindi vocabulary is limited to around 100 words,I didn't get last word. Seeing me giving a blank ,so what look, she got disappointed. After few minutes when street was fully covered with white dust I got excited and asked her "is this snow".She gave me a "that's what I said look " and nodded her head. Once we got boiling hot noodles we tried to finish it as soon as possible so that we could enjoy sometime in snow.

We opened our cameras and were clicking non stop,wherever we turn around there was something beautiful to click in that white back drop. There was excitement all around.Even yaks and dogs seemed to enjoy the snow.Since our driver had literally threatened us to have lunch and return back as soon as possible we went to jeep half hearted. There we had the first conversation with the family who came from Bengal.

lady : We had come here around 10 times and this is the first time we are seeing snow"

Me(proudly): This is our first visit

lady: You are really lucky ,even people living in nearby areas who often visit these places wouldn't have experienced snow.

There I thought of this quote which I later commented in one of my pics "Good people bring rain but great people bring snow".

Once the driver came,we started our journey back to Gangtok , snow by the time had painted the entire stretch in pure white.What started with gentle snow flakes started pouring now,the whole road was covered with snow.We saw few kids playing in the snow one was taking a small kid in a sledge another one made a snow ball and threw it at jeep's window.The more we saw those people the more we wanted to be in snow and play.We pleaded with the driver to stop the vehicle for two minutes just to get down and take pictures but he was adamant saying that we need to reach before it gets dark and never know how heavy the snow will become. You can see a boy ready to throw snow at our jeep on the right side.

There are somethings which happens when you want to, even though the driver didn't want to stop the vehicle he had to do so at a place because of traffic getting blocked up in a place. I commented that "If driver can't nature can".The guy in the back commented that "We just asked for 2 minutes but given the situation I suppose we would be struck for two days".

But who cares what we wanted was to enjoy and play in the snow, without caring about anything we used that opportunity well. We got down grabbed snow flakes in the hand made balls and all sorts of non sense we could throw at each other.We took a lot of pictures relishing every moment of it.Still there was no movement in traffic. Its been more than a hour or so and it was getting dark.

Driver who went ahead and assessed the situation said that there is a steep upward slope for around 25 meters and whatever vehicles which goes up gets skidded back due to snow. The way is too narrow at a given time only one vehicle can go up with one side you have rocky mountains and other side its frightening bottomless valley.We asked what we are going to do he confidently replied saying that his vehicle is a wonderful Mahindra Maxx which wouldn't let us down. But at that moment nothing was moving forward as no vehicle had the guts to climb up in that narrow stretch.

Then came our saviours two people from the army. They didn't have any modern equipment which would help in clearing the snow. All they carried with them was a stick with a red flag tied at one end.One by one the vehicles started moving via the slope ,since it got dark we couldn't see how the vehicles were moving up.There were few vehicles like Qualis and Scorpio which couldn't make up that 25 meter slope and got struck there.Given this scenario our ultimate moment came,our turn,the road was open for our vehicle to move up, the army personal gave his thumbs up. Everybody in our vehicles kept our fingers crossed. Our poor driver after a small prayer started the ignition,put on the 1st gear and pressed the acceleration on full throttle mode.

We were on the way gliding up on the slope ,so far so good , 5 m.... 10m......15m........ When we were all thinking we are about to make it ,our vehicle stopped then skidded and tumbled backwards,my heart stopped for a second. No more acceleration proved useful and the only way the vehicle was moving was in the reverse direction,with one side having a dark valley.The driver shouted at us to stop the vehicle(!),all the people except for the two kids got out the vehicle and stopped it from moving further down.We were like Hercules holding the jeep (ok group of Hercules).All this in the heavy snow. The other army personal came to our rescue he took a piece of rock nearby and placed at the back tyre which stopped it from moving further down. Then along with him we pushed our vehicle up. For every few meters the vehicle moved up the army personal placed the rock behind the tyres. Slowly we pushed forward. What a 2523CC Mahindra Maxx engine cant do we the people did, pushed the vehicle over the 10 meter stretch ably guided by the army personal . Team work really pays! Below pic you can how deep the valley is on other side.

That reminded me of a master card moment , travelling to Sikkim costs 6500 rs ,travelling in the jeep to Natu La costs 650 rs but the adventure we had -getting struck in the snow and got rescued by the army people...its PRICELESS. When we thanked the army person he asked where we are from we said Chennai he replied back "Naan koda Vellore than". He wasn't proud as if he had done a great job but for us he was like an angel from the skies helping us.The respect I had in army personal grew 10 folds.They are the real heroes who apart from guarding the nation, building roads and infrastructure at those difficult terrains, help people without any expectations. Only when we see them at work we come to know of the sacrifices they make to make our life easy.Once we crossed that barrier it was slow journey back to Gangtok,no one spoke in the jeep all of them praying that we should reach safely.

We reached Gangtok after a 2 hour ride.Once we got down we ordered two tomato soups to refresh ourselves.There was India Srilanka match played at Eden Gardens, India was chasing a huge total with Sachin and Sehwag gone early we never had hopes and switched it off . We went out for a walk,explored places like lal bazaar but we didnt shop anything as we had a whole day left. For dinner we stopped at Parivar a vegetarian restaurant in MG Mart.The food was really great there. Once we were back the match was headed to a exciting finish,the room boy joined us,he was a funny fellow who got excited at each ball delivered and giving his suggestions on how we should wrap up the match.When he asked how was the trip I forgot what to say for snow in hindi I said buff blush and finally he got it and asked is it Barf.

After India won the match I crashed on the bed ,never knowing I m going to see and pet a new animal the next day.

Click here to read KG's Version

click here to read Day-6

(to be cont)

~~Mike Rowe's TED talk~~

Good one , no job is a dirty job!