Lord of the Skies!!

This weekend provided a much needed kick and thrill to my otherwise monotonous life. Skydiving from 14000 feet with a 50 second free fall and a 60 second parachute fall made those 2 mins the most exciting of my life. Looks like I found an alternate profession should it ever come to that. The only scary moment was leaping out of the plane part, rather being pushed out of the place part. But once that happened, it was rock ‘n’ roll along the way. The fact that my instructor was a veteran of 5000 jumps helped too. The jump was followed by a fourth trip to Saravana Bhavan. One cannot ask for a better day.

The weekend also gave me a chance to redeem myself at go karting. As a few members of the gang may remember, I have a record of sorts at the go-karting place near Sanjaynagar. I am the slowest driver ever to have been there and I am not exactly proud of this. So when I set my hands on the steering wheel, the only thing on mind was to erase the memory of that painful day 3 years ago. I decided I will not use the brake at all. Starting from the last place i.e. the 7th, I came in first. Without bothering to describe my superior skills, I will let only the results speak for themselves.

On the flip-side, it turns out that I am not exactly the world’s best mini-golf player either. I did come in last in this particular game though. And one particular hole, it did take me 10 shots to get the friggin’ ball in. Atleast mini-golf is quite interesting if there are enough people unlike the longer version where some rich and fashion challenged people decide that they want to spend their day roaming from a hole to another hole which is spaced atleast a few light years away. The players get to traverse this distance in those cool looking golf carts while the poor and the so called spectators have to trudge along. Frankly, I am even amazed that this game has spectators. And the one thing I have never been able to figure out is the presence of the caddie. Why is he even there? He is the most redundant entity in that whole sport. I always wonder why the players can’t carry their own clubs. To top this all, I bet Tiger Woods’ caddie is quite a well to do dude, and he did this just by lugging those clubs from one point to another. Thankfully, being a bad mini-golf player doesn’t hurt as much as being the slowest driver does.

Phone “Spam” anyone?

Interesting things seem to be happening to me. A few days ago I became a victim of what can be termed as phone spamming. Came back to find around 10 messages on my answering machine. All from people from some store or sales departments offering to sell me some cheap cars, furnitures etc. Too add to all this, some Indian guy has given a wrong number somewhere and now I have to receive his calls. I get calls as to why this guy, whose name is Yogesh as I found is not responding to a certain other guy’s calls. For all I know, these spam messages were intended for this certain Yogesh. Yogesh sure deserves a good whacking for spreading wrong numbers around.

A thing I noticed in offices here is the presence of water fountains for the thirsty employee as opposed to normal water filters/coolers and glasses which are used in the rest of the world. The water fountain splashes water pretty much all over the face except for the mouth. No wonder they call it a fountain. I haven’t still mastered the art of drinking water from these wretched things.

Also saw this intense drama called 21 Grams, a movie shot in a different style with the chronological order of events in the movie being completely mixed. Took me some time to get hang of the idea and the entire movie duration to understand why it was called 21 grams. Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro really gave an interesting performance. And as usual, my hiking exploits continue. This time is was the Yosemite Valley. Amazing secenery and waterfalls. Too bad we couldn’t hike the entire trail to the Half Dome on account of dangerous conditions and snow. On the way back, nearly lost the way in the dark. When you are lost and you ask the locals for directions, each one of them suggests different roads. In one case, I was even pointed the road to Nevada which is a different state altogether. I shall refrain from asking directions in the future and stick to the directions given by Yahoo maps. After taking some back roads with weird names like Rawhide Road, Chinese Camp & Angela’s Camp I eventually did reach home.

And now I proclaim that I am sick of Mexican, American and Thai food. I demand Marathi food. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a Marathi restaurant. You find Gujarati, Punjabi, South Indian and other cuisines. But you will never find a place selling Marathi cuisine (except Maharashtra of course). As a noted Marathi comedian once said, a Marathi businessman is a fictional character. Maybe I could start my own Marathi restaurant here. Hmm!! Not a bad idea, even though I say so myself.

The “Tabloid” of India

I was reading the online version of the The Times of India, supposedly one of India’s most “illustrious” and oldest newspapers and I thought these guys ought to change its name to the The tabloid of India. The online version contains pretty much everything except a section called the news. And I see the paper version turning into the online version also. I remember the Times being the only newspaper I have read since my birth and I have seen the deterioration from being one of India’s best newspapers to where it is now. This was the newspaper that exposed the western world and culture to us in those 70’s and 80’s, while still giving a great coverage of the Indian news. Now days its pretty much dedicated to giving the “news” on fashion, movies and the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. The less said about the supplement titled “Bangalore Times”, the better. In defense of the Times, I would say the Sunday edition is not all to bad and sometimes readable. It does have some good articles which have been pretty much a regular feature since the 80’s.

Then comes the Hindu, with a great coverage of politics and sports. But sometimes a little too conservative and withholds some important information. The alleged use of the word alleged atleast a hundred times in every article can be quite irritating at times. But, the sports coverage is probably the best in India, I must admit. Deccan Herald seems to be improving and is trying its level best strike some balance between the Times and Hindu. But only continues to be a local paper and does not have reach outside Bangalore. Indian Express is not worth mentioning at all. It has transformed itself from a bad newspaper to not being a newspaper at all. I expect to receive a few comments on this blog. Everyone is definitely bound to have comments on this issue. Seriously makes me wonder, what paper to read.

On a different note, had a great hiking trip on the Palomarin trail and the pelican beach along the Pacific Ocean. Great view with the ocean on one side and mountains and forests on the other side. Some snakes on the way, some poison oaks and some muddy parts added the excitement to the trek. The day ended with another trip to Saravana Bhavan, where there was another big queue. For some inexplicable reason, we managed to get a table in just 2 mins. A sumptuous meal consisting on Idlis, dosas and pongal followed. Returned home a contented man.