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In the nick of time!

Once more I was acutely reminded of the fact that I am a very lucky person and life has been good to me in general. It seems my decision to exit from the employ of my previous employer was a very prudent and timely decision. The phrase in the nick of time has been excellently demonstrated in my case. I recently changed jobs, exited from a very good albeit unsatisfactory job with an NGO. With all due respect to the institution, I felt there wsa nothing more I could have contributed, plus some aspects of the work culture led me to exit the organisation barely one year after I had joined. Not to mention the fact that I was made an offer by another organisation which I could not possibly refuse, otherwise I would still be at Shimla. I left the previous job with some reservations and definitely some regrets. It was kinda fun to work with the NGO, but I had to advance my career. But thats besides the point. I have still maintained healthy relations with my colleagues and am in regular

Futile Attempts

I must be psychologically disturbed. A blog post turns out unsatisfactory and I delete it and another one which was in draft... And I feel irritable that the blog post was not very enjoyable. I feel irritated at myself, can't put the feeling in words, almost angry. feel like throwing something at something else and having one of it shatter... such strong emotional response to a failed blog post? I need therapy!

Travel log - From Shimla to Dehradun

Travel Log Date : 15th October 2010 From : Anand Niwas, Byepass Road, Kanlog, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh To :   UJVNL Office, GMS road, Maharaani Bagh, Dehradun, Uttarkhand Total Distance : 270 Kms (point to point) Departure Time : 1330 Hrs IST Arrival Time :   2130 Hrs IST Total Time : 8 hrs exactly (including 55 minutes of stoppage / breaks etc) Mode of Transport : Motorcycle, TVS Apache make, 149.8 cc Fuel Consumed : 5.62 Lts of ordinary grade petrol Fuel cost : INR 300.00 Mileage : 48.04 KmpL Now that we have done with the formalities of logging down spatial and temporal details of the experiment, I can proceed to being more informal. But before I begin my travel - log, its time for some history. Lets rewind the clock to a few weeks ago. I was planning on coming down to Dehradun since the past 2 weeks. I have had three consecutive long weekends (translated as sat and sun both off)and I haven't been able to utilize them to my benefit. The first week I was busy wrapping up my

The CLAP conspiracy

Its been almost a year now since I have joined my current job and moved to Simla. 7th of October to be exact. At the end of the year, I can say that it has been a bittersweet experience. Its been a very busy, exciting and happening year.Not to mention the fact that I get to stay in Simla and move around Himachal Pradesh. Thats what made me take the job in the first place. It may not seem appropriate to put all that is going to follow into a blog post publicly available, but I feel I am doing nothing wrong by recording my experiences and personal... mind you extremely personal opinions here. While I will try to stay away from commenting or criticizing any person here, I am pretty much sure that a reference here and there will invariably creep in. It has been a good time so far. I would first of all like to go over all the good things that I experienced for the first time as an employee. Not to mention the fact that my previous employer had no consideration whatsoever which makes my cu

48 hours

10 days of planning finally culminated into one of the best and most hectic 48 hours I have had so far. I had a long weekend coming up, Saturday and Sunday. It seemed a good opportunity to make a short trip to manali, kullu, see the sights and come back.... That was the plan. But as usual, Life, the universe and everything else played their usual roles by making the plan unsure upto the very last moment. At first there was this chance that I would be out in the field on friday, requiring my brother to travel by bus to join me at some point. then came the weird demand from my boss that we move into the field on saturday, a holiday.  Thankfully, the storm did not come to pass, and I got my weekend off. So off we went with a backpack of clothes, armed with a Olympus camera and looking forward to some quality time together.  Being the tourist season, we had had the foresight to book 2 seats on a semi-deluxe overnight bus to manali about 1 week in advance. The govt. bus it turned out was

Mandi Trip

Outskirts of Hamirpur, HP. Thanks to the clouds and haze it was tolerable. Dam site at Pandoh, 20 kms from Mandi (towards kullu) Another view of the reservoir at Pandoh From a cable bridge at a place called Hanog, 27 kms from Mandi (towards Kullu) The cable bridge at Hanog Chilling out!   Uber cool Man! uber cool

Rain!

No post since Feb 1. what a pity. But I must say, that Feb, March and April 2010 have been singularly busy and chaotic. I have no idea how the days have gone by. And yet, here I am staring May in the face and wondering whether time is also relative. Still in Shimla, enjoying the weather. Although it did get warm, (warm mind you, not hot as it gets down south) during March and April, so much so that I was speculating about temperatures in May touching almost 34-35 deg Centigrade here in Shimla. Now that May has finally dawned, much to my surprise, the temperatures are cooler and the days more comfortable than the previous month. At least that is the case for now. The reason being light showers every other day interspersed with the sun peeking out for a few brief moments. As a result, the wind has gotten a bit chilly, and there is the constant rumbling of the gods anger to back it up. Talking of backup - there goes the power supply just as I write this. Today is an exceptionally rain

Let it snow, let it snow.....

Curses! I have been saying that for almost 2 months now, since the beginnings of December when it started getting cold. I have been waiting for it to snow, bu to no avail, it kept getting chillier, made me lethargic no end, but the reason I was enduring all that failed to show up, snow! well, it finally did show up, in early January and that too when I was out of town in Delhi! talk about fate, all I got to see was some remnants of snow on the streets, which has partially thawed and frozen back during the night into solid ice. All i got to see was photos of people frolicking in the snow, while I was in Delhi, stupid meeting. And i put those pics a few posts ago i think. Well, today once again the weather started out clear as crystal and by late noon it has deteriorated to such an extent that my boss feels it just might snow. Its been all cloudy and dull for an entire week now almost. looks like I may at last witness some snow, if the cursed thing happens this week. At least this we

Cuisine Blues

On my visit to Singapore in September 2008, I came to realize what lousy junk we are served in our country in the name of Chinese food, right from the dhabas by the road side and the highways and gali - nukkads to many of the hi-fi, snazzy, snooty and 'posh' restaurants claiming to serve so called authentic Chinese Cuisine. What I tasted in Singapore was a far cry from the garlic rich, spicy and deep fried stuff we get here. I wont go into details, but it was the best noodles I had ever had (and I aint talking about maggi). Since then, my brother and me have labelled the Chinese food that we get in India (mostly prepared by Nepalis) as Chiness; pronounced chai-ness . I aso remember seeing a board in Goa which advertised 'Authentic Goan Chinese Food'. Now, at least that guy was honest :). Today, on  trip to Bilaspur, after having foregone breakfast and lunch in the name of the environment and my employer ( paapi pet ke liye kya kya karna padta hai ), we finally could
Ah! Finally! After a long and dry spell, we have rain again in Shimla. And what a sight! The temperature dropped instantly! and the clouds started decided that it was time to descend into the valley and obscure everything in their whiteness. I love this place! Unlike my home in Goa, The soil in Shimla does not give off the heady musky odour when wet. Well, I miss that! Maybe if I could introduce some actinomycetes in these soils :P