Hit Continue

There are lot of instances where the drive to quit had been greater than ever, but u still hit continue.

Remember the Fridays, when you got up in the morning and felt “oh, I am not going to work today” but still, hours later, you are either sipping a cup of coffee, discussing the ‘so-fars’ and the ‘way-forwards’ or staring at a machine and thinking “oh, I am not going to the bar tonight”, but in the evening you find yourself with a glass of fermented liquid in between loud music where only you could hear to yourself and say, “I am not gonna allow it to be another wasted weekend” and before you are drawing a checklist of things to do over the weekend in your mind, u r already in bed, looking at the clock and saying “bledy hell, its already Saturday”?

Remember the last days of school or work or last time you knew you ll be seeing somebody and you tell yourself “it’s not over here, we are gonna keep in touch” but as the time goes on, as you meet new friends, as you move to a new place, as you think ‘it takes to lose some self-respect’ to be the first one to initiate a conversation, as your ego overrides your innocence, as your brain gets busier and the mind gets duller, as the number of friends on social media are directly proportional to the global population increase, as your bank account get bigger, as you learn to be rude to people who are nice to you and as you think ‘it may be too late to say a hi’ to the person you wanted to stay in touch, realize that at some part of the world there is someone who wishes ‘I should have been on touch’?

Remember the times when you saw an accident on the road, wanted to help and still your car rose from 45 to 55, remember the times when you wanted to travel, find out ways about forgetting the past get inspired from people and still went ahead putting the same money in buying a costly phone on which you would be expecting a message from the past, remember the times when you decided to spend the weekend in an orphanage, old age home or an animal shelter and went ahead in postponing it for the next weekend, remember the times then you wanted to stand-up and talk against some of the superstition ideas or corrupt practices that you wouldn’t agree with but ended up being corrupted by your own superstition voice which said shut-up, remember the times when you wanted to sit idle and remember the times, where you should have hit continue?

Remember the last time when I said “There are lots of instances where the drive to quit had been greater than ever, but u still hit ‘continue’” and realized to remember that I was talking about instances where the drive to hit continue has been greater, you still hit quit?

Experience

Apologies for writing something new in the middle of a intended series of articles on my Himalayas Trip.

Everything began when I just finished my schooling (class12). I had to choose an engineering college. Ya, the only choice I had (or knew) about 'what to study next' was engineering. I had to choose between a deemed university in Thanjavur, an autonomous university in Coimbatore and a very strict college in Chennai (where my parents lived, where my home is) that was affiliated to Anna University.

I knew that graduating from a deemed university is not as valuable as one done with Anna University, was a huge rumour. Every course is a good one as long as one is interested in it and every college is good, as long you have some (even a few would do) good looking girls in the campus. So, since I had changed my room's light-bulbs a couple of times and used to remember electrician’s phone number by-heart, I thought I was interested in Electrical Engineering and realizing that good looking girls can be found in every corner of this spherical planet and facebook, I chose Thanjavur.

Being in a new place away from home was exciting, new friends, sharing wardrobes and tables with  room mates instead of my brother, the best dinner was maggi (Top Ramen was even better), boring weekends, super fast WiFi and a warden who will the mark attendance especially on the night when I decide to catch a movie or grab a couple of drinks with my buddies. Life was awesome. Got used to the new hostel life, which was new only for a couple of days. Fortnight trains back home during the first year, bunking a couple of classes during the second year, asking parents for extra money during the third year and attending only a couple of classes during the last year. College was Awesome.

After hardly working for 4 years and deep knowledge in Electrical Engineering (you definitely know in part I am being sarcastic), I got a job in a leading (leading as in half of the college would get placed here and the other half with the competitor) IT company. The best part of the job was the offer letter said “Working from Chennai”. Accepted the offer, packed my bags and headed straight home.

After sitting simply in the training program for 4 months, I was deployed to Mumbai. Had fun there,  ate vada pav and dhahi, met some good looking girls (wow, a sphere has corners too), had new job as Program Analyst and lot of money to spend the weekends sleeping. I had lot of fun. Staying away from home gave me a lot of experiences, I learnt a lot, my horizons got wider, the people I know were from varied backgrounds and I definitely had a good idea of what I wanted to become.

Now, after working for 3 years and having done none of the things I have mentioned above, I am in a foreign land studying in an International University, renting a house with a group of guys I met through facebook. I still know how vada pav tastes, I know a lot of people from varied backgrounds and I had lot of fun staying at home all the twenty odd years. I know however wide my horizons are, its still not enough. I know good idea is a myth and a good idea about what I wanted to become is the biggest of all.

Staying in hostel gives a new experience, undeniable. But for a good experience one need not stay in hostels or stay away from home, one needs to be aware. Everyday is a new experience, some-days we react and some-days we respond. 

Even these 3 weeks of staying away from home has been an experience, but staying home waiting for yours friends to come from Thanjavur during weekends and play beach cricket is great fun, exploring the same old city with a new set of friends is awesome and watching your parents grow old staying very close to them is beautiful. What if I don't have your experience, you don't have mine either and we are both happy.

Sar Pass – Himalayas: How it started

Got a call from a friend when I was about to hit the bed on a February night.

Conversation starts:

Friend: “Hey did u check out the Youth Hostel Association India (YHAI) National Trekking Expediture on Himalayas. I am going”. (All excited).

 Me: Ya? Super.

F: U should come too…

Me: Seri thukirvom (sure, we will pull it off). But now I am almost sleeping, tomorrow morning I will book.

F: awesome, it’s called the sar pass. The max height on the route is 13800ft. U cross a frozen river and then slide down. I have booked for June 3^rd….

Me: (with lot of other interesting information and me not in a state to process all of that at once because I was sleepy) tomorrow morning sure thing.

F: (since I attended the call when I was half asleep, u should have figured by now, it’s a she. so let’s call her S) don’t forget, bye.

and she hangs up.

NEXT MORNING...

TEXT message from S: dai, the slots for June 3 is booked. USELESS.

Understanding the demand, I ask 6 guys and sign up for the adventure, with reporting day on June 4^th. I get updates about the whole thing via S from blogs, news articles, websites, etc. My mind voice, it’s only march now and we have a time till June. Paathukalam da.

 “We are in April now, have u booked the tickets”? Another message from S. We book tickets from Chennai to Delhi, both ways flight (We are employed u see). The thought of not asking dad money for flight ticket because we are employed rings a bell. We are employed, two weeks of leave is impossible. First of all, am I eligible for that much leave?

I told my boss “I am going to Himalayas for a trek and I need leave for 2 weeks”, seriously I told my boss I was going for a Himalayan trek and there are bosses who approve it. After impressing the boss with some good work and few weeks of waiting, Leave approved.

Now we are on the last week of May. Making a checklist took me only a few seconds because the most important things were covered in the YHAI website and their specifications were shared by Ms.S.

Things to bring along with you:

1. Rucksack - if you have one, if not, don’t worry YHAI will provide u a good one.
2. CottonShirts – 3 on the trek. Done carry too many, ur pics will look better in that place even with a dirty shirt.
3. Cotton Pants or tracks. Jeans is also good
4. Sun Cap – 3 minimum.
5. Torch – don’t plan to buy this at the base camp.
6. Shoes - Can be bought in the base camp for 300Rs, but for good ones go to woodlands or Quechua.
7. Slippers – to walk around in the camps.
8. Socks – 4 cotton and 1 woolen. Woolen can be bought the base camp.
9. Enameled or Steel Mug / tumbler – if it can keep the tea/water warm for long and it not very heavy. Go for it.
10. Tiffin box – forget plates. Take tiffin boxes which has at least two partitions. Reserve the biggest for deserts.
11. Water purifying tablets – will be mentioned on the website but don’t spoil the water up there with these stupid tablets. Forget the purifying tablets.
12. Pen knife.
13. Dry fruits – Don’t eat everything on the first day. Believe me, u will be tempted to, but DON’T.
14. Shoes in-soles.
15. Sun glasses – black or brown. Strictly no blue.
16. Cold cream / Vaseline and Sun screen – SPF 70 or more.
17. Toilet Paper – Water will be available.
18. Light weight Towels (2) – it should dry easily.
19. Rain sheet – plastic sheet quality that can cover till knee. Don’t take heavy raincoats.
20. Jerkin/ Winter Jackets – preferably water resistive.
21. Medicines which you normally use at home.
22. If you want to contact somebody take a simple mobile (that can hold charge for a long time) with Airtel connection. We had people who bought 4 cell phones, so that they can talk full time. If u meet similar people, don’t tell them u have an Airtel connection.
23. Camera with extra battery – if your friends don’t have one.

After borrowing the shoes and the bag (Wildcraft - Alphine 55), putting the most of the above mentioned things into the bag and buying some toilet papers, I was packed on June 1^st. Since everything was set, went out to watch a movie and chose ”yeh jawani hai deewani”. Awesome timing, first half was completely about a trekking expedition in the Himalayas. The number of girls who came to the trip (in the movie) got my hopes high. With full of hopes, an extra full bag and 3 friends with mutual feelings, I reached Delhi on June 2^nd.