and then in Sikkim

Long back, during my sixth class, I went to Darjeeling with my brother and my parents. Though the trip was awesome and memorable one, the sad part was that I spent only 4 hours in Gangtok. It has been a long time and now I hardly remember a thing. I was trying to recollect stuff when I started googling and wiki-ing around to check out Gangtok again. Along with Gangtok, I discovered a ton of other places. Instead going to sleep, I spent half the night exploring Sikkim on net. In these few hours I totally fell in love with that place. Someday, I'll get away for some 10-15 days and check out Sikkim and only Sikkim.

Actually I can already picture myself going there. It'll all start with start with taking Satavahana Express early morning and reaching Vijayawada sometime in the afternoon. Eat some lunch and catch Coromandel Express(yea, the same train which got derailed two days back) which goes to Kolkata. I'll catch a bus and either go directly to Gangtok or go to Siliguri and from there go to Kalimpong. Kalimpong is just off Teesta river which is the most scenic river in the north east.



The image was lifted from flickr. Click for more pics on Teesta River

From there I'd head to Gangtok where all the action would begin. Maybe roam around and finally head for Nathula Pass. I'll walk, take pics and do some more stuff...



Maybe I'll also shake hands with Chinese Army guys here ->

Again both are from flickr. Anil Suri's album

From there I'll go to Lake Menmecho and Tsongmo Lake. Maybe go for a yak ride too :D. Later I'd head north

Lake Tsongmo

Once in northern Sikkim, my first stop will be Yamthung Valley from where I'll go further north to reach Gurudongmar Lake which is one of the highest lakes in the world.

Gurudongmar Lake

From Gurudongmar Lake the second half of my journey would begin wherein I set for the western part of Sikkim. Here I'll go to Khecheopalri Lake and from there go here and there and come back to Kalimpong to see the coronation bridge over Teesta river. From there a bus back to Kolkata and from there back to hyderabad :)

Khecheopalri Lake

so how's the iterenary? any more places which I might be missing??

adios
sashidhar

my take on The Age of Reason

There is this girl (whose name is the last thing I'd want to post on this blog :D) who talks a lot about existentialism. I did a bit of wiki-ing around on existentialism and found some nice things. From what I could understand, Existentialism is nothing but saying that all this philosophy thing is a bucket load of shit and that every man is an individual and philosophy can neither be used to generalize the behaviour of a person or set some arbit framework.

* * *

Around two or three weeks back, I found this book - The Age of Reason written by Jean Paul Sartre who happens to be this author who gave shape to the early theories of existentialism. Now, I consciously stay away from the likes of Marquez, Dostoyevsky, Ayn Rand who, I heard, write in a very abstract sense. Yet I found myself issuing this book. The book didn't disappoint my expectations of what it might be. It was a philosophical treatise disguised in this story set in France in world war 2 era. The book was outright boring. It was about this guy Matheiu who had this totally wierd way of looking at life. He loved two women(Marcelle and Ivich) but wanted to marry neither. He had friends(Boris, Lola, Daniel, Brunet) but wanted to be a loner, etc, etc... The book was so depressing that I left it after reading some 180 pages and gave it back to the library.

* * *

Yesterday when I went to the library and saw the book still lying around. Better senses DIDNOT prevail and I took the book and decided to see how the story ends. Hence started reading from the last 40 pages. Matheiu grew more frustrated, his friends were only more pissed with him, he deserted his mistress(Marcelle) who was pregnant and found out that she married one of his friends(Daniel) who was gay. He stole 4k francs from Lola who thought that the thief was Boris. The book ended by saying that Matheiu is truly free because "he exists in nothing." Wow! what a great way to end things. As if things weren't depressing enough.

Seems like the author wanted to convey the fact that it's ok to be frustrated in life. Frustration in life is a kind of lifestyle and the earlier you accept it, less miserable your life will be.

Moral of the story - Though there are people who are great fans of Existentialism in general and Sartre in particular, I'd want to stay away from it.

PS : does anyone know if there is any Spinoza stuff in library?? :P

Why library gives me so much of "pleasure"

Today evening when I went to the library for my usual dose of book browsing and keeping up with the activity of doing nothing, something new caught my eye. No, it wasn’t a new chick in the library. It was the New Arrivals section. Generally empty or barely filled, it was totally flooded with books. Got a mild shock when I went there. I don’t know who can recommend the books or how does the entire system works but today I became a fan of the system. SUch a big fan that I have decided to do a bit of publicity. So here are a few snaps of what I found the most awesome.

The book which caused it all

Awesome cover description

some more... one for everyone :D

So what are you waiting for? Go and grab the book before someone else issues it

adios
sashidhar

Escapades

Yesterday I went to Durgam Cheruvu. Never made a plan to go there. Was coming back to insti from Hitech city that I saw this signboard saying that Durgam Cheruvu was just a km from madhapur police station. Realizing that I still had the camera in my bag, I got off the bus and headed to Durgam Cheruvu. The first thing that came to my mind was that whoever named the lake that way still has the lake live to its name. The entrance to the lake from the kavuri hills side is totally obscure. Had to keep asking for directions to get there.

The place was totally awesome and I kept wondering why I never visited this place before. The visit was well timed considering the fact that
a. I had worn my sneakers 'coz there were these huge boulders which seemed pretty ideal for what I can call "boulder climbing"
b. had the camera with me. To get the best snaps, I went on further and further. The entire thing seemed something out of Farcry game where one saw a satellite station on top of some hill and one had to get there. I picked up this particular point and decided to get there. Took me two hours to get there. In these two hours snapped many awesome pics and had a helluva time. Here's wishing adios with some of the pics. I've put all the durgam cheruvu pics on flickr. and yeah... Happy new year too!! :)

The Catcher in the Rye and The Breakfast Club

With regards to my previous post, I'm trying to write as few posts as possible but while I keep trying, here's one more :D This post is 'bout a book I read a few days ago. The Catcher in the Rye. To be honest, there is really no story in the book. Just another guy traveling all over New York. The thing that stands out is it's narration. The book reminded me of The Breakfast Club a lot. Why?

• Both portray teen angst. Teens criticizing each and every thing and mocking the values of which the society is built and all.
• Both talk 'bout sexual issues in an open way. Though not a big deal today, it was when the book was released in the 50s era. The narrator talks 'bout losing virginity, cute asses, etc, etc... The Breakfast Club also had people(especially Claire) talking about her virginity and how she has to deal with the pressures of being the princess of the school, etc, etc. That's one reason why i think the movie and book were a generation ahead of their counterparts.
  
• profanity, vulgarity and portrayal of sensitive issues. The narrator of the book makes extensive use of profanity. Calling everyone and anyone a goddamn phony bastard, he is shown drinking as a minor. In Breakfast Club too, Bender brings in pot and all the people in the detention start smoking pot.
• Pop culture. Both had big impact on the pop culture. Many phrases like "sort of" as in I sort of liked it and "and all" as in I know it's bad and all.... slang like "screw up", "dough", "it kills me" etc, etc. all seem to have originated from this book. The movie too had a huge effect on the culture. It started the genre of high school movies, the concept of glorification of prom, sitting in the detention room thinking of ways to get out, etc...
• and finally, the transformation of the protagonist(s) In both the book and the movie. The protagonists realize that they are not what they thought they were. Writing it here might not be a good idea as it might become a spoiler :D

All in all this guy put it right. If you thought like him when you were 16 or 17 years old, you are forgiven. If you still identify with him, you need to find some more joy, somehow…fake it ’til you make it. Do something.

The last one?

I thought it was only me but there are others who are thinking on the same lines too. One of my most favourite bloggers has decided to stop writing. I sort of used to see a bit of myself in what she wrote. I never wrote anything about a lot of things that I would generally love to sit and chit-chat about, because it was already there on her blog. But today it isn't and something is amiss.

When I first started this blog, the one thing I wanted to do was to constantly ask myself how deep the rabbit hole goes? How long can I keep writing about the stuff that I write about ? Sadly I've lost most of those sentiments. Maybe because there is a different question I'm asking myself. Maybe something else. Maybe because, like her, I too am a bit selfish when it comes to me. Like Sharukh Khan puts it, it's always about me, my stardom, my family, my wife, my world, etc, etc...

In these 2 + something years as a blogger, I've written about a lot of stuff. Stuff which might not even make sense now. Ok, agreed everything has it's own place, serious contemplations, moments to laugh at, poetic reflections, etc, etc... but then change is inevitable. Change comes back to haunt us because it's the only permanent thing in life. I'm an optimist, not as big an optimist as Andy in Shawshank Redmption, but an optimist nevertheless. I see this as a sign that a phase has just passed. Maybe it's time to move on. Not necesarilly to greener pastures but also to some drylands with only forage bushes around.

Today as I stand on a crossroad, I don't know if it's a goodbye or just a hibernation, but whatever it is, i'll come to know about it in due time. Till then I'll just pretend this space was never mine...

till then adios!
sashidhar

5 reasons why IMDB is bad

imdb is a very good resource when it comes to movies, movies and tv shows' trivia. everything is fine except the top 250 list. For some stupid reason, it's going to the dogs. :( but why?? here's why

1. God Father part 2 in 3rd place. ok agreed i go gaga over dark knight and all but godfather part 2 is definitely not better than dark knight. Dark Knight never deserved this kind of a treatment x-(

2. Once upon a time in west on 19th position. anyone who has seen the movie will agree that the movie is boring and the plot has been stretched more than the elastic of a sagging underwear. it is a disgrace in the name of western classics.

3. Fight club in 23rd position. were the hell did all that junta go who say that fight club is one of their favouritist movies? i feel it should be somewhere in top 15

4. Forrest Gump in 46th position. need I say anything more? if tom hanks ever saw it, he would feel bad for all the running he did and the bullet he took in his ____.

5. Annie Hall and Ratatouille beyond 100. Someone once told me that you can tell if a movie is great if u find any 10 min sample of the movie good. Atleast on that basis, Ratatouille and Annie Hall are both very good movies and deserve to be atleast in top 100.

atleast this is what i feel :|