Skanda Giri / Kalavarahalli Betta Trek

[This blog is a break from Goa blog, to fill up a commitment :)]

Diwali. 3 day extended weekend.
Off to a trek on Sunday morning at 5.30
(Thats right.. The numbers are true!)

A detailed write-up has been already put up by Gasper.

My part, in this collaborative blog, is to add up a few lines to what he has written. Its nothing but the "lessons learnt" from the rigorous 2.5 hours of knee breaking extravaganza. Here we go:

1. Do proper homework. Get the route map. Get basic stuff - water, bread, biscuit. Get glucose and chocolates too - these are quick energizers.
2. Find out a shoe that resembles MRF Nylogrip at the base, and put it on !
3. Do a fuel-check. Carry the documents! (Jim's pulsar had all the documents till 2 km into the trip, before he lost them :D Luckily, all xerox copies)
4. The earlier the better. We found a group that started by 3AM! The moonlit trek ought to be some fun!
5. A hill-climb doesnt necessarily require a 5m network cable in your bag. Thats what we found in Jim's bag, when we did a reality weight-check at the top of the hill!
6. Minimize the luggage (back-pack) size. Split the weight across, rather than stuffing it all into one bag!
7. Jins had a lesson learnt to add up "Shouldnt we have simply slept away at home, instead of all this ordeal?" :-))


Tail:
1. We had a dog to guide our way down hill. The dog would go down quick, take a nap, and then again get on to its foot, when we reach :P
2. The traffic police had big plans for the day. Found them at multiple points on the highway, but nobody was interested in checking our whereabouts. Good for us :)
3. Had a minor accident. Rat the victim. During down-hill trek, in an attempt to get a little hand-support, fell flat on palm, onto one of the rocks. The rock had thick king-sized 'rock-colored' thorns on it. That was a few drops of redness wasted...
4. To our surprise, at the top of the hills, we found a bread-omlette/tea point. It was 'party time' up there :)

A few stills:

Thats flat terrain. Its gonna change soon!

Stay with the flock

Rock-support!

At the peak

Highly deceptive !

Goa Lekar Jawoo

A very confusing title for a travelogue. But that phrase carries a lot of meaning, and was in some way, the "driving force" for the Go Goa Part II. Incidentally, the Go Goa part I was 4 years back, in Sep 2008 2004. Not much of change to Goa. Its still the same. Except that there was a bigger crowd this time around.

The trip was not the usual long planned one. But we wanted to go on a trip with our favorite character Jim to some place or the other, before he flies to Netherlands. Goa became a unanimous choice. But the plan remained on paper for a couple of weekends.

Then one fine Wednesday, Rat and Bin sets out on a ticket hunt to the nearby travels area. There are a few dozens of travel offices lined up there. Got into more than half a dozen and stood on the busy Hosur Road side with a face that would resemble that of a baby, who dint get his chocolate that his dad had promised to get in the eve.

For one last try, got into one travel office, which is seldom visited. The bluently English speaking gentleman posted a few questions:

Q. Did you try KSRTC?
A. Yes. No tkts (But why would he try get business for KSRTC??)
Q. Train ?
A. No tkts! (Is he now working for IRCTC?)
Q. Then try blight naa......?
A. Oh Thats too expensib, err.. expensive
Q. Hmm...
Q. How many ob you ?
A. 4-6
Q. Oh! Then bhy dont you book a taxi and go ?

Taking cue from this, we went back home and dialled a few numbers. And the trip was on! Innova AC booked. We start on Friday evening 7pm.

A highly camera conscious Bin dragged Rat on Friday noon to go shopping, lest he should come for the trip in his age old blue pant and the boring dull shirts.

Sowji, Gasper and Jim landed in time. Mridul landed on time. Packed a few well-thought-of stuff into the innova:
1. one fully flat football
2. three helmets :-S
3. one digicam, one handycam
4. sunglasses - one per nose :)
5. 7 mp3 CD's, 1 parody CD :P

Contd...

Tail:
1. The voyagers made sure that the trip plan is communicated to the respective homes. Sowji was seen 'breaking' the news just before getting into the Innova - probably inspired by Bin :D Mridul had bigger plans. Since none of our plans hit the target, he decided he will tell home, only upon return :D
2. The innova came with 4 bucket seats plus one long backseat. That is just the right seating combination for 6+1
3. Whats with that "Goa Lekar Jawoo" ? Thats for the next day's write-up :)

Go Goa : Trailer

Statistics

I love statistics. Not the traditional ones. The weirdo ones. Total whacko. Such as "the percentage of people who step over cow-dung on the same spot for a 2nd time is 1.3 in 100". Number games like this are always nice.

I had read long back in RD. We should be able to go by the method of approximation and estimation. They had cited an example in the book. A better one would be the one in the movie "Alaipayuthe", where Madhavan sees this beautiful lady at the Chennai station, and seeks the help of his buddies to trace her out. (If you remember that scene , well and good) :-)

Yesterday, I did some math on my own. To get an approximate count of the number of steps I would have "conquered" so far. My seat in office is 60 steps away from ground level. That is 120 steps for a round-trip. Add the lunch time climb-down and up, its 240 per day !

That is (start->run->calc) 5280 steps per month.
63360 steps per year.
316800 steps, so far, only from my professional front.

Phew !

Tail:
1. "Goa Lekar Jawoo" is pending, and is up next :-))
2. Many trips are lined up for the rest of the year. And that gives a nice pleasing feeling :)

VaaranamAayiram

Text reproduced from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hKC0qlEo2c

Vaaranam Aayiram is a forthcoming Tamil feature film currently being directed by Gautham Menon, who with Vaaranam Aayiram will direct his seventh feature film. Surya Sivakumar acts in dual lead roles, whilst Sameera Reddy, Divya Spandana and Simran Bagga also play roles in the film. The film, which has been under production since late 2006, has Harris Jayaraj as the music composer. The film, announced with a budget of 14 crore Indian rupees, is set to be released in the summer of 2008. Following Kaaka Kaaka in 2003, both the director Gautham Menon and Surya Sivakumar expressed their desire to come together for a film in the future. In early 2005, the pair came together for a film tentatively titled Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam which also featured Asin Thottumkal in the lead role and Daniel Balaji in a supporting role.

However, after a photo shoot, the film was delayed and then subsequently called off due to Gautham's personal problems. Nevertheless, in 2006, producer Oscar Ravichandran signed up the pair for a new film, which they confirmed was not going to be a sequel of their previous venture, and was going to be a romantic thriller. Initially titles such as Naan Thaan and Udal Porul Aavi were considered to be the title for the project but however, Gautham announced the title was decided as Vaaranam Aayiram, with the literal meaning of "the strength of a thousand elephants". Prior to the start of shooting, various technical crew members were signed up and the shoot commenced without a leading lady on 24 November 2006 at a nightclub in Chennai. In 2007, it was announced that a 10 day shoot in Afghanistan would be followed by abroad shooting in Malaysia, Russia and the United States of America, however til date, the film has only completed it shoot at University of California, Berkeley in San Francisco, USA and is unlikely that shooting will be held in Afghanistan, due to fears of safety. 

In November 2007, Gautham Menon decided to send the reels of the film back to Chennai from San Francisco. Two of the production managers were assigned the task of bringing the reels to the producer's office, however they stayed in Singapore for a couple of days before returning to Chennai. Following their arrival in Chennai, it was understood the reels went missing in the hotel they stayed in at Singapore, but the search by the police in the hotel proved unsuccessful. The whole crew of Vaaranam Aayiram was in a fix as the reels consisted of various fight scenes, songs as well as other scenes which would have potentially lost up to Rs. 2 crores financially. However, soon after, the reels were with the Singapore airport authorities and the team recovered their loss. The film finished its shoot in August 2008 and re-recording is on. 

The film is believed to be based on the Russian film, Character, however others have claimed that it is a remake of the 1993 Hollywood movie, Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks. However Gautham has stated the film will draw inspirations from Forrest Gump but will be fixed to suit the Indian audience. Furthermore Gautham stated that Surya Sivakumar will be seen playing the dual roles of a 21 year old and his father and also that the film will be with society themed. The film which was previously set to release in 2007, has been delayed for a October 2008 release After the cancellation of Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam, originally starring Surya Sivakumar, Asin Thottumkal and Daniel Balaji, Gautham Menon, keeping the male leads the same, wanted to opt for a new heroine to begin Vaaranam Aayiram. Initially, Deepika Padukone was signed up and set to make her debut in Tamil films, however she backed out due to the inactiveness of the film and signed the Bollywood film, Om Shanti Om instead.Soon after another confirmed heroine, Andrea Jeremiah was dropped from the film for unknown reasons. 

Asin expressed her desire to be a part of the project, however the male lead, Surya, refuted her offer citing that she had walked out of his previous film, Sillunu Oru Kadhal and refused to act opposite her. The producers then announced the film with Divya Spandana, who was making her comeback to Tamil films and Genelia D'Souza in the lead roles. Soon after the start of the shoot, Genelia decided to walk out of the film, after Gautham refused to pay the hefty salary that she was demanding and was receiving in Telugu films allowing Sameera Reddy to act in her first Tamil film. Simran Bagga signed and completed her shoots swiftly after she was selected to portray the mother of Surya, after Tabu had rejected the role.

Marketing Techniques !

It amuses me at times, to see non-native people in this metro (almost) city, who not just survive, but do it big time! 

There is this bakery near our house. And when u say 'bakery' you can be doubly sure that its run by a Mallu. This fellow, who hails from North Kerala, knows nothing but "Eshtu" (which in Kannada is "How much"). And he runs business at one of the busiest snacks/tea outlets in the area !

the other day, Bin and I went looking for tickets for a trip. Bumped into this Gulte. He speaks Kannada, Telugu, and bits and pieces of Hindi and English. Very much the same as us, except that we dont speak Kannada or Telugu :P

His English was of the funny Bihari type, where there is only bhaiv, and no five. There is only bull buses, and no full buses. But he excels purely on his marketing skill. When the special-bus-with-double-charge scheme dint interest us too much, he started friendly interrogation.

Q. Did you try KSRTC?

A. Yes. No tkts (But why would he try get business for KSRTC??)

Q. Train ?

A. No tkts! (Is he now working for IRCTC?)

Q. Then try blight naa......?

A. Oh Thats too expensib, err.. expensive

Q. Hmm...

Q. How many ob you ?

A. 4-6

Q. Oh! Then bhy dont you book a taxi and go ?

Followed by this, he explained the distance, the cost factor, the luxury factor, and the convenience factor. In the end, it turned out that at a few hundred extra bucks, we would get better facilities, and better time and resource management ! We sat there, pondering why this Helluva-Idea dint strike us before !

The fellow is now in a winning situation, coz he became an instant 'friendly tour guide' to us, giving us so many options, and finally winning a deal for himself (almost)

We left..

We booked an innova (from elsewhere)..

AC !

And we are off today evening.

Bottom line:

WE ARE GOING TO GOA !!!!!!!!!!!!

(ithu parayaanaa ithrem valachu kettiyathu :D )

Of Ads - The Good Nice & Ugly

One Good Ad that is seen playing on TV these days is the jaagore campaign in association with Tata Tea. This is an innovative advertising campaign. The company is not campaigning for its own cause - but for a bigger cause, of national importance. Kudos and applause to Tata Tea for the initiative. Go check www.jaagore.com . It has a lot of information embedded over there. Its for the stupid worthless morons like me, who dont have a voter's id :( - I can always blame on "I'm here, my constituency there" But not a good excuse ! Even for the good samaritans who have the voter's ID and have voted before, there is quite a lot of friendly information there. So go check it out now:

www.jaagore.com

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The Nice Ad - The Union Bank is now seen advertising itself, with refurbished looks, and a nice looking logo for itself. The kiddo who cries coz of a teeth coming out onto her palms is consoled by her bhaiyya (Such a young kid and such an elderly bhaiyya? So it be..) And the kid ends up "helping" buy her bhaiyya his dream racing car :) So cute ! Ads featuring such cute lil ones will always be good ones.

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The Ugly Ad - This is the Reliance Ad I guess. This goes completely in diverse direction in comparision to the 'Good' Ad featured above. The hubby who is on a business tour is reminded by the wife about the "memento" script that they had written on a historical monument. This is totally absurd. On one side, we are running awareness programs to respect and protect buildings and architectural works of national/historical importance. And here, this ad is totally in bad taste.

>>>No video for Bad Ads<<<   :-)

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Tail
1. The ban on public smoking is wholeheartedly welcome. Now I dont need to bear the sight (and the smoke) of the so-called-yo-girl in the office smoking-zone (which is now history).

2. But still, while the govt has counted offices, pubs, hotels, insitutions for no-smoking-zone, the roads and national highways are not yet counted as "public". Very odd !

3. The other day, The Hindu featured a full-page feature advertisement. With a huge pic of APJ, and 2 relatively smaller images - of Amar Singh and Forgot-Who-It-Was. APJ, and in turn, these 2 leaders were instrumental in convincing (well, to some extent) and implementing the nuclear deal. Good informative feature.

4. "Socha Hai..." from Rock On is a good number. Try that song out, before leaving to office. The other day, I was singing that one all alone and all aloud on my black beauty all the way to office :)

OPT : Review - Milana

Image Courtesy: OneIndia

That movie name is familiar to many. Thanks to the super duper song "Ninnindale" which won Sonu Nigam the best singer award in Filmfare South Awards. This one song is good enough to drag you into the theatre. It took quite a while to get me into the screen, though we had been planning it on and off many times.

The hero of the movie doesnt have the captivating catchy chocolaty looks of somebody like Imran Khan, but he is a hard worker. He is the son of the late Kannada Legend RajKumar. He is Puneet Rajkumar. 

The heroine is familiar. Parvathy Menon - a mallu.

And there is a guest appearance by Pooja Gandhi (of the Mungaru Malhe fame).

All songs are good. We were welcome into the screen with a wedding song - Madarangiyalli. Either we got in late, or that itself was the start of the movie :)

And then there is the semi-item number Kadhhu Kadhhu. Boy, the hero is a good dancer. And an aerobic expert too !

The movie is a family entertainer. There are a few fights - to add some commercial content. Most of the stunt scenes are performed by Puneet himself. Some of them - very daring and scary sommersaults and fly-in-the-air's.

Some similarity with the Hindi musical (flop) Dhadkan. But definitely a good watch. No wonder the movie has done one year. And is still playing in PVR - Forum !

Check out these songs on youtube:

Ninnindale - 

Kadhhu Kadhhu -

Tail:

1. While I'm writing this, Surya TV is playing Praja. Crap Dialgoues ! Is the hero, the 21st Century re-incarnation of Mr God Himself? He seems to know everything !