An Account Of Winter Trek-08 Part 1

For a change I decided to blog about this trip “My Diary” style. This was one the best trip I had ever been on. I have decided to share every little detail of the trip as I remember, censoring out the stuff that’s not meant for all. So here it goes…

Train Journey from Bangalore to New Delhi & Geographically Challenged Kunfu-Pande

Dear Diary,
We boarded the Karnataka Express around 7 in the evening. Every time I board a train, there is an expectation that a hot chick would be my co-passenger and this time it was no different. Like always expectation turned to disappointment when an elderly couple took the remaining 3 seats. Leaving behind the initial setback, we decided to girl-hunt the compartment. Satisfied with our efforts, we decided to settle down and discuss about the trek plans. In a session of fast paced no-holds-bar jokes exchange I regretfully let out a story from my college days earning me yet another nick name to the already over populated array. We spent the next day playing cards and listening to music. I often wondered what makes a decent group of boys/men/old men go wacky when it is to do with ‘A’ jokes. I guess all guys think alike. We ended an uneventful day with some wacky jokes from Arun and Uttaran and smart ass comments from the “old” man. By now we had already caught on the “Yeah” symptom. I will be back with more about this later. We reached New Delhi at 11:00 am and met Mr. Jog at the station and we decided to eat at Karims. I’ll skip the details of the lunch but for the record it was the best non-veg lunch I had in a while.






Photo Taken @ Karims: Situated near Jama Masjid is a must place to go if you are a meat lover. This is said to be a restaurant opened by the Mugal Emperors Cooks. There are many branches that have opened up all over the city of Delhi but nothing matches the original. A word of caution, it takes quite an effort to reach the place and many might find it dirty but if you are a foodie this is the place to go. Pic Taken By Cheezo




This kick starts the second episode of Part 1. We thought, I say that again “thought” that Kunfu-Pande being a local boy would know Delhi well. That would go down as the biggest mistake of the trek. Pande and I had our shares of goof-ups in Bangalore, but we could always escape by declaring that we were outsiders. Our very own Pande promised to take us for the movie Madagascar 2, but we ended up in a cine hall that played that stupid SRK flick. You have to forgive me, but I can’t even mention that name of the movie in my blog. It’s an insult. After couple of calls to Junglee we decided that we shall pass away the time by roaming in the streets. We soon realized that we need to hit a pub and enjoy some music. Our Pande once again delighted us with the news that he knew a ROCK pub. After roaming around in all the wrong directions we finally made it to the ROCK pub that turned out to be Sports Bar that played MJ. We finally ended up in Barista. I was too sober to remember what happened next, so we skip to Part 2. Click here for part 2.

Jethro Tull - A Night Of Entralling Music

Just minutes before i could enter the concert arena, I could'nt help myself wondering if its going to be good show. For one, i was not a big fan classical/hindhustani music nor had i heard much of Jethro Tull. It was obvious that it was too late thinking about it as we have already purchased the tickets. I was the one to pull in more company for the concert so all more reason for me to be worried about the quality of the music that will be played. So it was Me, Uttaran, Ozzy, Arun and Prerna, with 3 of them having little or no prior concert experience. I have heard few Jethro Tull numbers and i liked them, but not much of Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the Pandit Ravi Shankar. The first thing we had in mind as soon as we entered the arena was to gobble up some unhealthy food and thats exactly what we did. The concert started at around 7:15 PM and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull introduced Anoushka and her band. She started off with Raag Jog in Aaditaalam. The splendid sound of sitar and tabala gelled well with the cold weather to give a promising start. She mellowed down with Raag Panchamsigara her dad's composition which was not so much to my liking but it was great anyway. She went on to play another song which iam not sure what it was. But it was overall a superb performance. This has convinced me to try out Anoushka's works. After the first set, we were eagerly waiting for Tull to take stage. The second set was purely JT, and they started off with Living In The Past.


I initially found Ian's voice a bit shaky but it improved a lot as the song proceeded. Although not my favorite Tull song it was enjoyable. The next track was Mercy, brilliant track, the guitar solos were very good and above all Ian rocked! Tull kicked in with a more familiar song Too Old To Rock n Roll and dedicated it to Sir Mick Jagger as we all know as the one the oldest rock stars to survive the new millennium. The frequency at which Ian was changing instruments in Heavy Horses, goes to show how talented he is as a musician. At this point Junglee was busy jumping here and there to avoid the pot smoking idiots. Just for the record there were many. Uttaran and me were particularly interested in 2 girls in front of us who were high. We wanted to try our luck if you know what i mean. After one and half hour into the concert the moment i was personally waiting for arrived. The opening notes of Thick As A Brick brought in the nostalgic feeling. That feeling only a few individuals can cherish. I personally love that song, especially the lyrics. I would pay any amount to watch JT perform that song again. Then came the magnum opus of JT, Aqualung brilliant as usual. That marked the end of set 2. The last set would be some fusion between JT and Anoushka. I was not sure how this would workout as i never been to this kind of fusion concert. It turned out to be one of the best concerts i attended to. The third said was beyond brilliance. They have done a superb job in mixing two unique sounds together. The set started of with a new composition just for this tour called Tea With Anoushka, which was lovely blend of guitar and sitar. It was slow to start but picked up momentum getting the crowd to sway. Celtic Cradle the next song that Ian introduced to crowd was simply mind blowing. True to his words it was indeed Irish music with sitar and flute as the main instruments. The music was very different and it had a lounge music feel. I guess all of us throughly enjoyed it. Moving on, Ian wanted to play Mother Goose for the crowd. He brought in Anoushka's band members to have a tabla, flute and sitar jamming with guitar, drums and keyboard. Uttaran was bit skeptical as it was well known Jethro Tull number and might spoil the whole sound with sitar. Again they have outdone themselves it gelled very well and the outcome was enthralling piece of music. Ian and Ravi Chandra Kullur (Anoushka's flautist) had a jamming session where they both tried to raise the bar higher and higher. Ian jammed with Anoushka and then there was a tabala and drums jamming.

Ozzy Looks Doped!!

It was a really extended version of Mother Goose but was enjoyable. No rock show is done without and encore, so the band was in the stage for the last song and it was none other than Locomotive Breath. The show ended on a high note. I mean that "literally", as lots of people were stoned. After an hour wait to get out we finally and drove back kicking into the interstellar overdrive.

Dummy Post

anki tell me if its working!!!!

My Washing M/C Going Bonkers!!

My washing machine started revolting after months of washing my dirty clothes :)

Kellogg's Pyramid!

Kellogg's Wheat Flakes

This is the amount of breakfast cereals we (2 of us) consume in 22 days. We stock it up at the start of the month! Is this normal? I begin to wonder if this type of diet is actually going to help us in the long run. We have already said no to puri, dosa, vada, pongal some of the main south indian dishes, so what is left is the western style food, cereals. what do you folks think?

My Personal Tribute Richard Wright

I heard the news that Rick Wright one of the original members of the band Pink Floyd, has passed away. He died of cancer at the age of 65. This will go down as one of the worst days of my life. People reading this post might find it silly that iam mourning for a person (a musician) whom i have not known or met personally. I agree i don't know him personally but his music has made me what iam today. Pink Floyd's music has always been very personal to me. I don't like to share that with anyone. Every time i hear "Wish you were here" i burst out crying as it related to my very close friend i lost. I can honestly say it was Pink Floyd that was the inspiration for my success in life. Iam very lucky to have discovered such brilliant music at a young age. Rick, i don't know if there is really a "Great gig in the sky", if so shine on you crazy diamond.

Remembering: My Cousin's Wedding

Its kind of hard to believe that my cousin sister is married. I just wanted to write something about this special event in my family. I remember the rants we had about marriage and what we want and we dont want. Somehow it was me and her who were the shameless rebels of our family. We always wanted to breakaway from tradition in any possible ways. Thus came the discussion on how many guest we will invite? and what we will do? what we wont do? , the list goes on and on. One thing for sure was the fact that our saying will have no impact as far as parents were concerned. I remember the days when she was really fussy , fighting with her father for every little things he wanted her to do. Some instances include her refusal to look at any horoscopes sent to her, not willing to talk to suitable bridegrooms chosen by her father and so on. She entered her second phase where she suddenly changed from brashness to shyness and spent all her time including office hours over the phone talking to Raja. She let go her stand on how the wedding is to be conducted and let her father take care of it. She soon became the scrape goat for all of us and boy! we loved it. Everyone of us used to tease her but she always took it in good spirit. I was over the moon on day of her wedding. Everything was going as per plan and i was playing the bakara part in the wedding. It never occurred to me that this would be last time i would be seeing her before she takes off to US. It was all of sudden realization that a person you have known all your life is moving on and chances of seeing her whenever i like are very less. I guess iam not the only one with mixed emotions. Iam very good at hiding my emotions so on the day of wedding i goofed around and made fun of both the bride and groom. When i got time for myself after the wedding i was really sad. I guess, it must be same for everyone close to her. Even if i make it to the US in future there is very less chance of sharing the same level of bonding as before. Things will be never be the same. I understand that we have now grown up and ready to take serious responsibilities of life. Its just so hard for rest to understand and be mature. She had moved on, she has a family of her own and i would soon have mine. I will cherish the best moments we had together for rest of my life. From this moment its a new beginning for them and iam happy for them. If you guys are reading this, i wish you all the very best for your future.