Bike trip to B.R. Hills

This post is about a trip many years ago. My memories about the trip started fainting, so I decided to put it in my blog. I was sitting in a small hotel room watching a 14 inches TV. I started feeling sleepy. But when I switched off the TV and laid on the bed, I couldn't sleep. Probably the bed of the 275 rupees per night room of the hotel was not so comfortable. At 2AM, I started recollecting my last 2 days.

It was an extended weekend (Friday off) probably in October 2011. I planned a trip with my flatmates Raj, Purab and Simi. But till Thursday night, the trip was not planned. Purab said we will leave in the morning, but nobody woke up. At lunch, Raj said we will leave in some time. But where? I got the gist that nobody is going anywhere. Angrily I told Raj at 2PM, I will leave by myself if noone leaves. He replied that its hot outside, we will leave by 5PM. By 3:30PM, I felt that Raj is not willing to go anywhere. I decided to go on a solo trip. So I took my bike keys and laptop bag (I don't know what for) and left.

I started off in anger. I took the nice road and drove on an average of 100kmph+ and reached Mysore road. After a few kilometer on Mysore road, I saw 3 college students on a scooty. I thought they might get caught by any traffic police. So I moved my bike ahead of them and stopped them. They thought I am police myself and stopped. When I offered them that I can have a pillion and follow the scooty till the destination. They were relieved to know that I was not a police. One of them sat behind me and I followed the scooty.

I and the boy behind me started talking. He told me that they were going to Raasta cafe and they were 16 people on 7 bikes. They were tripling on 2 bikes. When we reached Raasta cafe, I met all 16 of them. Raasta cafe is a hukka cafe on Mysore road, about 40km away from Bangalore. They asked me to join them. I hesitated initially, but when I saw them sleeping on the Mysore road for pictures, I agreed. All of them were friends of different ages. The oldest of them was 3 years younger than me and had just passed out of college. They offered me hukka and beers. I spent around an hour and a half with them. Then I decided to leave before it gets dark. I wanted to pay for them or atleast for myself but they did not let me do it. They asked me where was I heading. I opened Google Maps and checked for a destination. I found a huge lake Agara lake near Kollegal and told them I was going this place. They said they never heard of the lake and I better stay safe.

I left them at the Raasta cafe and moved towards the lake. Luckily I was not much high because of hukka or out because of beers. It got dark and I got hungry before I could take a diversion from Maddur. I had a burger in McDonalds and continued. It was 8PM and completely dark, even no street lights from when I took the diversion from Maddur. There were no shops on the way as well. I kept riding the bike in dark. On the way, I found a shop open. Even my phone got switched off by then. I got down for directions but nobody have ever heard of the Agara lake. A man asked me for a lift. I took him on the bike and continued on my way.

I tried to find where the man wanted to be dropped off but he did not understand English or Hindi. I assumed when his destination arrives he will say. We rode for around 20km, but he did not indicate to get dropped off. The road was single and pathetic. No street lights, no villages and no humans as well. I picked him from a places with hardly any person and was riding with him in places with hardly any person. I was feeling lost in translation. Suddenly he started shouting car car, pointing towards right. I thought there was a right turn and he saw some car coming and he wanted to go in the directions. I took a U-turn and came back. There was a car hit a tree. We went to the car and helped the old man inside the car out. In some time, there were many people who came to help the old man in accident. After helping the old man, I asked him to help me. He thought I will be asking for money, maybe he encountered some greedy people before. But I asked him to translate the destination of the person I gave lift to. They talked something in Kannada and one of the guy who came to help the old man said he is going in same direction and will come with us.

I with the man on one bike and the guy who was going in the same direction in another started riding together. The guy was riding at speed of 10kmph talking to me. He asked me where was I going. Funny thing was he lived in Kollegal but never heard of the Agara lake. He asked me where did I find this man behind me. I told him everything. He talked to the man in Kannada for some time and by then my shoulders had started paining, due to slow riding and laptop on my back. The guy asked the man to sit behind him. After an hour or more, guy dropped the man in a bus stop, telling him 4 hours later bus will be coming for his destination.

After dropping the man, the guy and I rode talking. He told me the man could have been a cheat, because the place he belonged, the place he lived, the place I picked him, the place he was coming from and the place he wanted to go, none of them were same and did not even logically fit. But I was convinced the man wasn't a cheat, else he would not have stopped me to help the old man. The guy told me that its already past midnight, I should take a hotel. He got me to a cheap hotel in Kollegal. He was a photographer and he told the hotel guy that I was a model. I even looked like one in long hair. This way I landed in this cheap hotel. I rode more than 200km that day. Thinking about the day, I slept off finally.

I got up in morning 5:45AM, got fresh, took a quick bath and left the hotel. I rode towards the B.R. Hills the actual destination, I wanted to go. It was cold and I rode without helmet to enjoy the breeze. The 100kms was a fun ride. I reached the B.R. Hills in 2 hours. When I reached the B.R. Hills village, first encountered dogs. 3 dogs barked at me. First I accelerated but then I stopped the bike to avoid skidding on the road. Dogs stopped barking and left. When I started the bike again, they came back and started barking again. I stopped again. This repeated 3 more times. Then finally I ran off and they kept barking. B.R. Hills mainly had a temple and nothing else. I took rest there and enquired places around and found out about M.M. Hills 100km to the other side of the Kollegal.

I rode towards Kollegal and gave a lift to a middle aged man to his home, from who I took the direction for M.M. Hills. On the way to this place, an insect entered my eyes and my eyes started burning. Just by guessing, I took the bike to the side of the road avoiding anyone hitting me from behind or I hitting the side. When I got my eyes cleared, I realised I would have fell off the road if I would have taken one more feet to left. I rode slow for sometime after that, then wore helmet and ran off as fast as possible. I reached M.M. Hills at 2PM. The place had a very huge temple crowded with devotees. I took a tour of the temple, had a cold drink and rode back for Kollegal. My pocket got empty and I knew I have to find an ATM in Kollegal. On the way to Kollegal, my shoulders started paining badly, due to the load of the laptop and there was no shade to rest. I took shelter below a leafless tree, when I found nothing. Hardly 5 minutes of rest and I started again. I reached Kollegal by 5PM.

On the way, using Google Maps, I searched for the Agara Lake as well. I was riding to and fro but couldn't find it. Even people in villages just 100 meters did not know about it. I parked my bike to see where the legendary Agara lake was, which even being so big noone know about it. And I got the reason, why nobody knew about the lake. Because there was hardly a drop of water in the lake. If it wasn't for Google Maps, I couldn't have known it was a lake in any season.

Now I had to decide whether I should stay in Kollegal for the night or continue to Bangalore. I had already rode 400km that day and Bangalore was 200km away. My shoulders were almost paralized. If I took rest in Kollegal and go to Bangalore the next day, I will get tired again and won't get rest at all. But if I continue to Bangalore, I will reach Bangalore the same day and will have complete Sunday for rest, no matter how tired I get. Finally I decided to continue to Bangalore. Maybe it wasn't a right decision, but I took the chances that I can make it to Bangalore alive.

On the way, a young college student asked me for lift. It was a fight with conscience, what we call in Hindi as Dharam Sankat. I was already tired of such a long ride. My shoulders already paining as hell, with laptop still on my back. The road ahead I knew was bad. If I took a pillion, I will surely be dead. He himself had a bag and I can't hand him that to wave off my load. But still, again I took the chances and gave him a lift. He wanted to go to Maddur, which was on my way. I rode in the bad road as fast as possible and dropped him at Maddur. Again I ran as fast as possible. But after sometime, I got exhausted and ran out of energy. Only 7kms away from Bangalore, I felt I would collapse. I saw a food shop on the left and I got down there.

It was 7PM and it had got dark. I was badly tired, hungry and in pain. I collapsed on a table outside the shop for sometime. Then I got up and asked the shop owner whether there was any medical shop, so that I could buy a pain killer. He directed me towards a medical shop. I went to the shop on foot, but it was closed. Then asked someone for another shop, but it was closed as well. I couldn't get rid of the pain, but I decided to get rid of the hunger. When I checked my wallet, I had no money. I forgot to check for an ATM. I search for ATM near the shop but couldn't find any. So I was outside a food shop or restaurant, but I had no money. Though I was still hungry and in pain, I got sufficient rest to start again.

I reached home by 8PM and I was hungry. My 3 flatmates decided to go out for dinner. We went to the parking. I thought Raj could carry me as Pillion and Purab can ride on my bike with his girlfriend Simi. Raj and Purab both used to ride my bike many times. But I don't know what happened that day. Even though I told Purab, I am exhausted and in pain after riding more than 600kms that day and more than 800kms in 2 days, he was not ready to ride any bike. Maybe there was some personal reason, that a good friend like Purab made me ride again. Simi sat behind me to the restaurant and back. I slept off immediately I fell on the bed and next morning I was completely fine. No pain and no tiredness. Even after 4 years, I still think though that solo trip was painful and tiring, it was worth an adventure. I drove 600kms in a day and 800kms in 2 days. I gave lifts to 4 different type of people.

First Night in Bangalore and became TVF Pitchers Writer

After returning to Bangalore after more than 2 years, first day I with my 2 co-founders Rohit and Sumit spent in searching for PG and we got one in JP Nagar Phase 6. At night, Sumit slept early, but I and Rohit did not. At night 2AM, I and Rohit were in a mood to have tea. So we left the PG in search of tea. We asked a auto driver where can we get tea, he pointed in a direction towards Jayanagar. We started walking towards Jayanagar.

After a kilometer, a drunk guy stopped us and started asking questions.

Hi, I am Madhusudan. Do you watch movies? What kind of movies you like? Blah Blah. I am writing a story and wanted to know how people (like we 2) behave at night. My story is a action thriller about a shootout in 24A Main Hotel.

Madhusudan was too drunk to stand or keep his hands still. Rohit was not comfortable at all and was not entertaining him but I was. I welcomed his questions completely for fun. After he told his story, I told him that I wrote a story in college and mailed it to several producers directors and after 7 years a movie interstellar had come which is similar to my story. I suggested him not to share his stories this way. They get stolen easily. He then started trying to induce some passion in me. I told him that I write blogs and I have written a novel as well but did not publish it because I don't have time to rewrite it. He got very much interested in me and asked me about the novel. I just told him it's a sci-fi.

Rohit interrupted to ask where can we find tea this time of night. He knew a place the tea guy comes almost every night. Then we walked with him to that place. There were many guys waiting for the tea guy but the tea guy had ran away because of police. Madhusudan offered us cigarette, if we wanted that. I took one of the cigarette from his packet and had it. Then we started walking towards our PG with him and towards his place as well. Luckily we came across the tea guy. 3 of us had tea and cigarettes. I gave Madhusudan my card.

After having tea and cigarettes, Rohit also start talking. Rohit suddenly came up with an idea for a story and told Madhusudan and me. Idea was very good but needed lot of thinking. Madhusudan though he did not understand the idea probably because he was drunk; but kept praising the idea because he assumed it must be good. Then I gave an idea of a story, infact a story. Madhusudan became fan of us.

3 of us were very comfortable now. I asked Madhusudan, have he seen TVF Qtiyapa. He said he is a big fan and really big fan of TVF Pitchers. Rohit, for fun, said that He and I are the writers of TVF Pitchers. And he started laughing. Madhusudan was shocked but did not understand whether it was a joke or truth. Rohit said we are joking. Madhusudan relaxed and said he was shocked at this.

I poked Rohit not to say anything further. Then I told Madhusudan that Rohit was saying the truth. Madhusudan got confused again, again probably because he was drunk. I continued.

We wrote TVF Pitchers and TVF Permanent Roommates. Currently we are working on Permanent Roommates 2. You can go and check the TVF videos, you will find our names.

Madhusudan shocked again.

I will definitely go and see them again. Please come to my place.

We are in hurry right now but you can go home and check. You don't need to check the complete video. Just the credits part. You will find our names in writers.

Then something stuck me that the name of Raghu in Rowdies Qtiyapa is also Deepak Mishra and he is almost in every of the TVF acts. That made my confidence in this prank too high. I opened wikipedia page of TVF on my mobile and showed him the name Deepak Kumar Mishra. He matched it with the name in my card, which I gave him a few minutes back. He insisted us to come to his place. But we maintained that we are in a hurry and left.

It was 4AM by then and a tea shop opened in JP Nagar. Rohit and I were having tea there. Madhusudan called and asked for the wikipedia page link and I Whatsapped him the link.

Then Rohit admitted he wasn't comfortable in the beginning with Madhusudan. If I weren't there he would have stopped to talk to Madhusudan.

I said I was comfortable with him but this doesn't mean I was not conscious. Every 15-30 seconds I checked if there are any more people coming from any side, so that if this Madhusudan would have been with a robbers gang, we could run whenever we find anything skeptical. Also I asked him that did he not notice that I purposefully smoked the cigarette Madhusudan gave all alone. So that if Madhusudan had adulterated the cigarette, at least one of us would be there to run and call police. And not accepting the cigarette would dishearten him if he was a genuine guy, that we found out at the end.

The first night in Bangalore became fun. We met a writer, heard his story, told him our stories, made up new stories and fooled him to believe we are TVF writers. He whatsapped me after a week. But I am not sure he still believes we are the TVF writers.

Ladies in Metro

        When you live in Delhi-NCR, you will frequently travel in Metro. Whenever I travel, I don't prefer to sit unless many seats are empty. I don't prefer to sit because there is always a person in the Metro who needs the seat more than me.
        3 days ago, I was travelling in Metro from Noida to Gurgaon in morning peak time. This is the longest possible route in Delhi Metro which involves switching Metro at Rajiv Chowk. I had no dinner previous night, no breakfast that morning and no sleep the whole night. I went standing from Noida City Center to Rajiv Chowk. By then I was very much exhausted by standing for an hour. I got into the Metro which goes to Huda City Center. Again I got no seat. I started getting drained of energy. I was about to faint. But luckily 2 Metro Stations later somebody got up from a seat to get down at Central Secretariat. I sat down on the seat and started feeling relaxed.
        I would have been seated not more than 5 minutes, a lady came in front of me, expecting me to vacate the seat for her, but she did not say anything. I was not in a condition to leave the seat. I still considered her. First in a legal way. I saw above me to see whether it was a reserved seat for ladies. No, 2 seats beside me were but this one was not. Second as a moral responsibility. I saw her whether she was old, handicap or ill or at least whether she needs the seat more than me. Nothing worked in her favor. So I decided I will sit as long as I need to get some energy and then get up, because I knew I still will be in the Metro for more than 45 minutes.
        I sat 5 more minutes regaining energy. By that time, the lady kept making the psst sound every 10 seconds to show her irritation. After 5 minutes I got up and she sat down. After few minutes her colleagues got in and they started talking some shit. Then something I overheard in their conversation. The lady was saying that she doesn't travel in ladies compartment because she doesn't get seat there. In general compartment, someone always vacate seat for her. Hello, I am still nearby.
        Since then I realized this is a very inhuman trend to vacate seat for ladies, even if it is not a ladies seat. Vacate seat for anyone who needs it more than you. Be that person an elderly, or handicap, or even another lady who needs it. But not for a perfectly healthy daily Metro traveler and that too when you desperately need it. I shouldn't have got up, just to teach the lady a lesson.

I am a follower of Aradhe Maa too

First Draft

        I used to wonder how can millions of people be so dumb that they are followers of Taki Sawant Part 2. From the time I found out the reason why they follow Aradhe Maa, even I am a hardcore follower of the godwoman. Aradhe Maa indulges in sexually provocative activities with her male followers and even grabs their private parts. Wow. It's a heavenly experience to have a quality time, even for few seconds, with a god-woman.
        Last week I went to Kandivali for some work. I could see huge posters of her satsang. As she was in news for various reasons, I was curious to see her in person, though I considered her followers idiots. I took VIP ticket to her satsang and reached to the 3rd floor of high class people. After some time Aradhe Maa came dancing and ran to the stage hugging-kissing her known ones. I was stunned to see this that all I heard in news was true. She found a new face in the VIPs i.e. me. She came to me and sat on my lap. She asked my introduction, but before I could say anything she hugged my face and buried it into her breast. I, someway, found my way out to breathe and uttered her name. "Yes, take my name", she gasped and planted a deep kiss for around 10 seconds. Right from that moment I fell in love with Aradhe Maa. That was the most pleasurable moment of my life. Aradhe Maa is so caring and innocent. She is a woman herself and so she might have needs too. Who else will she turn for help, other than her followers?

Later Addition

        The above incident is not true, but I send the link of the First Draft to Aradhe Maa herself for fun. She was so high that day that she could not even recollect that this incident did not even happen and offered me 1 crore rupees just to delete the post. And this way we got funding for our startup awesummly. awesummly

PS: The whole thing is just another Bakchodi while drinking. Aradhe Maa is as pure and pious as Taki Sawant. And we still have no funding.

UBER RAPE

        My friend Rohit booked a cab from Gurgaon to Noida at night 1AM. The cab driver was a big fat Haryanwi and had no expression on his face. Rohit was scared of him in the beginning but he made him comfortable by adjusting his seat and pulling the seat belt. Most of the roads were empty and desolated. Rohit fell asleep after 5-10 minutes.
        Driver took a sharp left turn and bumped the car on the speed breaker. Rohit jumped from his seat and landed on the driver's lap. Rohit got angry on his rash driving in the beginning, but then he saw he was in an isolated road, people find unsafe at night. He also realised he is on the driver's lap and something was pricking his butt from below. The driver had unzipped his pants and must be preparing for something.
        Rohit tried to standup and run from the driver's lap but driver held him and pulled him on his lap. Rohit's pant tore off from behind and the driver's dick got stuck in his ass. He tried to run again but driver pulled him again. Everything was happening so fast that it was like Rohit is pounding on the driver's dick. The driver was also moving fast. Rohit saw the driver's face. The driver was having a grin on his face. The driver had put the gear on neutral setting speed of around 30kmph that it doesn't stop.
        Rohit knew he couldn't avoid the rape, so he decided to co-operate. Rohit stopped trying to run and stood still. With that even the pounding stopped. The shouted on Rohit, "What are you doing?". Rohit got scared and started jumping on his dick again. The driver got pissed off, applied the brakes and opened car's door. Rohit was even more scared that many more of the driver's friends will come in and rape him.
        The driver slowly slide his lap below Rohit and got out of the car. Rohit tried to get up but he found the driver's dick was still stuck in his ass. What the fuck! He slowly moved up and switched on the light to see that it was the gear that was stuck in his ass and he was jumping on the gear box. He also found out that it was not the driver who was pulling him when he tried to run but the seat belt.
        Rohit came out of the car and he was very embarrassed to look at the driver's face. The driver was silent. Rohit felt stupid and raped by a gear box. His pant and underwear were torn. After a minute of panting with pain, he finally spoke up, "Boss, take me back from where we came. I need to change."

PS: This is just a Bakchodi, Rohit, Sumit and I had after drinking.

Awesummly story on yourstory

Thanks yourstory

‘Three idiots’ are building Awesummly product to digest news

Nitin, Ankit, and Deepak were wandering from one company to another without direction or guidance in search of the first step. It was sheer fate that brought the three entrepreneurs together. Before meeting each other, each of them had unsuccessfully tried their hand at several startup ideas with different teams but had always failed due to unfavorable circumstances and lack of motivation in teams.

It is always difficult to pursue entrepreneurship after a stage of life when you can’t risk losing a regular source of income and have family pressure and responsibilities..

Inception of the Idea

A night in U-block Gurgaon, when the power had gone off for hours, saw the beginning of new ideas. Deepak came out of the building to get some fresh air and found his neighbour, Nitin, sitting outside the building. That night they talked for four hours and found they shared a similar bent of mind. Nitin regaled Deepak with stories of every project and technology he had worked on. In no time, two strangers became friends. They shared several ideas to work on: from Search to NLP to Social Networking. Soon enough, the idea of ‘Awesummly’ came up over drinks in a pub in Gurgaon.

What is Awesummly?

Awesummly is an automated tool that fetches news from different sources and summarises them in less than five-six sentences and displays the summary in the news listing.

Awesummly targets not just news. The company’s vision is to make summaries a basic necessity for every listing. Be it news, product listing of e-commerce websites, book and place listing or Google search listing.

Nitin said,

Competitors provide short news but their model to enhance and scale is not adequate because they create summaries manually. In this mobile era, while surfing online, if we find something very lengthy, we skip reading it. This habit has made us miss out on most of the good things. Before reading a long description of anything on mobile, we want to see a summary of it to decide whether it’s worth reading.

Awesummly is planning to monetise the platform through Summary API and ads.

Who is Nitin?

Nitin, who is a M.Tech in CS, worked in TCS Research Labs for two-and-a-half years. He had always worked on building scalable architectures and product design, as well as Machine Learning and NLP technologies, publishing research papers on them. But he wanted to do something big.

Nitin admits to getting easily inspired by entrepreneurs. He has had many ideas but could not execute them due to lack of a motivated team. So he kept looking for like-minded people, while dealing with the monotony of his day job.

Who is Deepak?

Deepak, who holds a B.Tech in CSE from NIT Rourkela, switches jobs quite frequently. He joined his fifth company, Cvent, in his fifth year of work. He had worked with three startups before that. As an entrepreneur, Deepak had tried his hands on and dropped more than 10 ideas, and most of them got dropped after he had started development.

He started losing faith in the team and made many failed attempts at working single-handedly. He did not have the approval of his family to quit his job and startup without investment. He was inspired by Vijay Jumani, humble CEO of his former company, Hoopos, and he wanted to make an employee-friendly company like he had.

Initial hurdles in starting off

It was not easy to form a startup for the duo. Nitin joined a startup, Tripoto, though Deepak was not in its favor.  The two used to meet every night for 10 minutes for tea and worked on their idea.

They went to a Lean Startup workshop one weekend where they made some good contacts. But when it seemed they would finally pull it off, Nitin moved to Noida and joined another company, Neuron.

Family pressure and problems led Deepak to move to Mumbai. He joined his sixth company Housing. Nitin became CTO of Neuron in a month and got busy with work. He hired technology enthusiasts to work with him. Ankit, a young inspired hot blood coder, came in.

Jab Nitin met Ankit

When Nitin saw Ankit for the first time, he realized Ankit was a perfect fit.

Ankit has done B.Tech in CS from GITM, Gurgaon, and had a passion for entrepreneurship since he was in college.

Ankit had worked in three startups just to make sure he learned all the skills required to start his own company. He could not launch any startup as he was not able to make a complete team. Apart from being a perfect full stack developer, he had also worked as marketing and operations head in IEEE Society.

The birth of Awesummly

Deepak made a trip to Delhi for a night and met Nitin again and the desire to set things rolling with Awesummly was rejuvenated over some wine. Within five days of working nonstop, Awesummly was on the table. It is still a mystery for Deepak as to how they did it and why they couldn’t do it earlier. Hundreds of hurdles and demotivation from people, and distractions from family and friends were all overcome by them.

Website

Momma doesn’t always know best

A friend of mine dropped out of school at sixteen. His mother, herself a school teacher, almost killed the chap. She wanted him to follow in the footsteps of her eldest son, who had finished top of his class in high school, aced all four years at a fancy university to secure a prestigious degree, and landed a damn spiffy desk job before his grad hat hit the ground.

Fast forward a decade, and the eldest had abandoned the corporate life. The big paycheck didn’t compensate for all the uninspiring work and mountains of stress. He found himself much happier helping out his uncle laying hardwood floors, prestigious degree be damned.

And by that time, his younger brother (the dropout) had become highly-successful running his own garage, showing remarkable business smarts while turning his passion for everything on four wheels into an auto repair shop. He’s more artist than mechanic.

So one son did everything momma wanted, while the other listened to his gut and went his own way. They both ended up in their happy place, but the eldest needed a big detour to get there. Gotta be careful who you take directions from.

Love your parents but, realize they are not your career counselors. Live your dream not someone elses

Courtesy - Rohit Nibariya (name not changed)
Source - ndoherty

Let's startup

When I left my college in 2009, like all other engineers even I had several things in mind to do.

1. Pursue further studies MBA or MS

2. Prepare for interviews to crack Google interviews and work with Google

3. Buy house (although against my wish)

4. Starting up my own company

5. Learn technology as past time and take technology courses

6. Take extra curricular courses like dancing, playing guitar and travelling.

7. Write novel

After leaving college since today (2015), I worked with many companies and I am currently with Housing.com, which is my 6th company in 6 years.

1. While I was in my first company Onmobile, I gave GRE and got a shit score in English, though I got full in Maths. I declared GRE is not my cup of tea, so will be GMAT and CAT. Point 1 ruled out.

2. All along I have been preparing for interview, my target was to prepare to crack Google interviews. I never got calls from Google, though I applied in their career site. Anyway I was never prepared enough to crack it. Point 2 not fulfilled yet.

3. My dad bought a house in Kalyan on my name and took loan on my name. I had been always under a responsibility of paying the EMI.

5. I learnt several technologies in my past time spending lot of money. Embedded Systems, Android development and Hadoop technology.

6. I took dancing classes for a day, tried to learn guitar from a friend, went to Gym for 2-3 days. I realised only extra curricular I liked and can do easily is travel.

7. Never got time to write the novel and dad never allowed me to quit my job for it. Let's call it that it wasn't a priority.

I missed out Point 4 because it is something which everyone thinks of doing but hesitates to do. I am one of those hesitant people. I had several idea which I dropped out due to several reasons.

1. When I was in college NIT Rourkela, my friend Sameer and I always thought Let's startup (chal startup karte hein). He joined some IIM and went for MBA.

2. After college in Bangalore, my college friend Dhruv and I had an idea, which got washed out because he found a girlfriend and moved from Bangalore to Delhi for her and then went US for MS to get married to her. I could have taken the idea ahead but due to some bullshit ethics I don't want to do it without him.

3. I got few more e-commerce ideas with my colleagues in FashionAndYou in Bangalore but dropped them because of competition, EMIs and dad's pressure. Main reason was no-one dared or was sure.

4. I moved to Gurgaon. My colleague Kashish in Tradus in Gurgaon had several ideas but we couldn't implement, again because we couldn't dare to start. We both left Tradus. I joined Cvent.

5. While I was in Tradus, my ex-manager introduced me to his friend Anshul who was an entrepreneur with an idea. Anshul offered me 30% equity and I called it 35%. He never called me back.
6. In Cvent, I planned several startups with colleagues but we couldn't start.

7. My neighbour Rohit in Gurgaon and I planned several things but those couldn't work out because he was in company switching mode first then switched. Then in a month, he switched again. So we did not get time. Rohit and I attended Lean Startup Machine. We decided to not drop the idea. But then I had to move to Mumbai and he moved to Noida. After coming to Mumbai, I discussed the ideas with my friend Sumeet in Kalyan, who had come home on vacation from Dubai. He found 2 ideas workable and left for Dubai.

8. One of the manager in Cvent Mahesh left Cvent and attended few workshops like LSM and planned to startup. He called and discussed 2 ideas with me and 2 more friends. But now noone is getting time for it.

In group 7, problem is we all are far away. 3 people in 3 different places Noida, Mumbai and Dubai.

In group 8, problem is all are busy but no idea where.

Not sure why is not so simple to just get started with a company. Now-a-days its so easy. May be I am a lazy one. This happens with everyone means I am not the only one. Everyone around me are wannabe entrepreneurs. Every random group of guys I hear at tea stalls discuss new ideas to startup. I am just another wannabe.

A SUNDAY

        The Sunday I am writing about happened around 5 years ago.
        One Friday evening, Aarti asked me whether I was free on Sunday. Her grandmother’s brother or Nana was coming to Bangalore and she had to meet him. She did not want to get bored, so she wanted me to come with her. I was shocked like why me. She was in relationship with my college friend and roommate Raj that time. She must ask him to meet her relatives, not me. Whoever she takes with her, her relatives will consider that guy as her boyfriend. It better be him. Or she would have thought her boyfriend can behave like one, but not me. I might keep distance, act decent and won’t impose rights on her. For me, it was an honour that she considered me so trustworthy for asking me to meet her relative. We generally consider it a risk to let an opposite sex friend meet a relative and specially a guy with long hair.
        Sunday morning Aarti picked me from my home on her Scooty Pleasure, in presence of Raj. Obviously Raj knew about it. On the way, she told me why she was taking me. Her Nana is sort of saint and he lives in Mount Abu. He came to Bangalore to meet his disciples and give a Preaching. She thought I would be interested in such things because to her I was an intellectual kind of person and would love to ask her Nana some queries. Wow! she considered me intellectual.
        We reached to the auditorium 2 hours earlier. It was on Bannerghatta road near the Dental College. I was ok to wait but Aarti did not want me to get bored. She asked me if we can go out somewhere. I suggested Bannerghatta national park because it was nearby. She made no second thoughts and we left for Bannerghatta national park. She parked the Scooty in the parking and we started walking. I was worried if Raj found out that we went to the park, he would definitely get angry.
        It was my first time in the park. Aarti asked me whether I wanted a jungle ride in bus. I reminded her we could get late. She said that was ok, the Preaching will go for 3 hours. She might intentionally want to miss most of the Preaching as it would be boring to her. So we took the bus. The bus had 2 groups of people. Only 2 seats were left and that too not together. The conductor requested the kids in the second last seat to leave the seat and it was a couple seat. I heard it but ignored it. Aarti probably did not hear it. I did not even tell her. We sat in the couple seat. Everyone in the bus considered us as a couple. If I would not have had long hair, they would have considered us a married couple because Aarti looks very much a wife material. There was a very cute baby girl beside us and we played with her most of the time when tigers, lions and bears were not outside the bus. When we got down the bus, Aarti asked me did I hear what the conductor said when we entered the bus. She heard it but did not mind. Nice.
        We went back to the auditorium. We were sure we are more than an hour late. We got in and sat in the middle seats. Aarti’s Nana saw her and notice her being with a guy in long hair. His Preaching was mostly Kannada but he repeated the important things in English as well and that was specially for me. Preaching lasted 2 more hours.
        After the Preaching was over, Aarti introduced me to her Nana obviously as a friend. Her Nana and I talked for about 2 more hours. He, I and Aarti were the only people in the room or kaksh most of the time and Aarti was silent for the whole time. I was in the centre of Aarti and her Nana facing her Nana and Aarti was 135 degree behind me towards my right. It was just the way the super conservative wives are in a family, always behind her husband when he is talking to another person but at the angle that the husband could see his wife from the corner of his eye. Aarti’s Nana’s disciples who arranged his coming used to come and ask if we needed anything from time to time. They even brought the dinner for us, actually I am not sure they brought or we served ourselves. Some people did join us for some minutes a few times, but not for long. I felt that in the whole place only 2 people are important. One is Aarti’s Nana and other is me. We got the special attention because we were the preacher's relatives. And I got special treatment from her Nana because her Nana thought I am her long haired but super decent boyfriend, who she will be marrying eventually. If she was not to marry me, she would not introduce me to her relatives. That makes me a son-in-law or Jamai Raja. And even before leaving, I bowed and touched his feet showing elderly respect. Actually just not to give respect, but the naughty me wanted to cement his doubt that I am going to be his son-in-law. His disciple, who did not know Aarti before, would not have considered me a going-to-be-son-in-law, but already a son-in-law.
        Aarti’s Nana and I talked about some intellectual things as well. But my favourite and simplest question to him was, “In your complete Preaching, you assumed the existence of God. Do you blindly believe or are you sure of it?” I was expecting him to say that he had seen god or some undigestible stuff, but he said, “All the people, who come to me, believe. I do so because that is the only language by which I can make people understand good things.”
        Aarti and I left from there and went to a mall on the way. I don’t remember which one it was, probably was Reliance Mart. She wanted to purchase soap. When I saw her picking a soap, even I thought to buy a soap. She took Dove, I took Park Avenue. I teased her that we are shopping soaps like a married couple and she laughed about it. She and I used to tease Raj for using Pears soap that he is a kid. So she thought to buy one for him to tease him. I suggested to take the teasing one notch higher and gift him a Johnson baby soap. She agreed. We went to the counter. I kept the 3 soaps on the counter and saw it together. Shit. A Park Avenue, a Dove and a Johnson Baby Soap. I put the Johnson baby soap aside, before the counter guy could see it and swipe it. Aarti was shocked why I did that when I myself suggested the baby soap. I told her I would explain the same outside the mall. Outside the mall, I explained her summarising the whole day and the summary will conclude the post as well. 
        First Aarti preferred her best friend i.e. me over her boyfriend Raj for spending her Sunday with. We went to Bannerghatta national park and everyone considered us as a couple. In the Preaching place, everyone considered me as her husband or going-to-be-husband. In the mall, if the counter guy would have seen the 3 soaps together, he would think that we are married and even have a baby. And if we would have bought it, anyone who would see the soaps through the transparent polythene bag could think the same. Even at home when we show that to Raj, he would definitely think that what would other people who saw this would have thought. In a single day, first I was a friend preferred over a boyfriend, then I was a boyfriend to a wife material girl, then I was a going-to-be-husband, then we shopped like married couple and by the end we even had a baby.

Unplanned trip to Leh

        Leh is a great place, in fact an awesome place. If you are reading this to know how good Leh is or how to reach there, jump to the last paragraph of the post or go to wikipedia or google images. If you are reading this to know how good or bad my unplanned trip to Leh was or how not to reach there, please go ahead. I would be really glad. 
        First I will tell you, why I planned this trip. I was switching companies from Cvent Gurgaon to Housing Mumbai. My time in Cvent was too hectic. I desperately needed a break. My last day in Cvent was 10th April. I requested Housing to give me joining date as 20th April, so that I can relocate easily. Also as I was moving to Mumbai, I would not be able to travel to Himalayas so easily. So I wanted to travel in probably last time and that too to Leh. Also as I had sufficient time of 8-9 days, I wanted to go by road, and not fly there. As my going to Leh pre decided, I did not research anything, just packed and left.
        It was Saturday and I sent my luggage by Movers and Packers first, then I booked a bus ticket to Manali and took a cab to Kashmiri gate bus stop. I reached there 2 hours early and also the bus was an hour late. So had to wait at the bus stop for 3 hours. I was walking in the bus stop continuously, just to keep myself from thoughts. I had many things that were coming in mind. Like leaving the previous company Cvent and all my friends there. I liked a girl in Cvent but did not let her know at all; she did not come to office on my last day and I want to see her desperately. One of my old best friend Aarti, who was also my friend Raj’s ex-girlfriend and who ditched Raj and married someone else, was having divorce signing on Monday. I was walking trying to eat something or drink something to keep myself busy.
        My phone rang. It was Raj. He and I did not meet since 3-4 months and he did not made any efforts to do so. Since his engagement was fixed around 8 months ago, we only met once. Picked up the call and told him I was in bus stop, leaving Delhi for good. He told me that he wanted to talk to me but he was hesitating to do so. He told me his engagement broke. The girl cheated on him after engagement and he came to know about it. I told him he was lucky that he came to know about this before marriage. He felt so relieved because he thought I will say other way, as I have a habit of defending everyone. Though I tried to defend her too for some time, which made him angry as well, so I changed my statement.
        Bus arrived and I got in. My phone got switched off as well. At night, bus stopped for food and then drove continuously all night. In the morning when I woke up, bus was still on the side of the road. Came out of the bus, saw a truck carrying match box was fallen leaving behind a narrow part of road for others. All others vehicles could go one by one but my bus and a long truck were not able to. Very long traffic jam both sides with trucks and cars moving slowing from the narrow lane turn by turn. People started cutting the hill so that all vehicles can easily pass. I wasted 2 hours waiting and knew this will take minimum 2 more hours. I took my bag and started walking. 
        Got a lift from a bike. The guy’s name was Tameshwar. As we rode, trucks were jammed for 5 kms minimum. He stopped after sometime and told me he drinks whisky on a small elevated places on a turn beside road. I waited for him when he was drinking. We smoked cigarettes. He offered me to drink but I refused. He told me about his bike accidents after drinking. After he finished a quarter we continued on the bike. He was riding rash now. He realised in some time, so he slowed down. We stopped in a shop and had breakfast. In a village on a road, there was a fair. He stopped to buy anything. We got in the fair. We were searching for winter wear for his year old daughter, in the month of April. First he bought shoes and by the time he was buying shoes I searched for a shop selling winter wear. After buying shoes, I bought a jacket for his daughter as a gift. I couldn’t offer him money for helping me because it might be insulting for him. I wanted to repay him by gifting his daughter. We came outside the fair near the bike. The shoes and jackets couldn’t go in the bag. So I asked him to hang in the handle of the bike. When we were doing it, we noticed that there was only one shoe. We walked all the way looking for the fallen shoe. We went to the shoe shop. The shopkeeper guy had left and his mom came in place. She called him. We told him that there was only one shoe. And we could easily locate the second shoe as well in the shop. Its wasn’t difficult to convince them that the shopkeeper packed only one. We took and left. He dropped me in Sundarnagar bus stand.
        From Sundernagar bus stand, got bus to Mandi. From Mandi bus stand, got bus to Kullu. From Kullu got bus to Manali. I reach Manali around 4:30PM. I enquired in the bus stop about my Volvo bus. It hadn’t yet reach. I went outside the bus stop to Mall road. In the end of the Mall road, there was a Hotel Yak. Got in it and took a room for 1200 per night. I wouldn’t have taken a room for 1200 if I hadn’t needed a loo. I got fresh and went for a walk.
        I went in the direction from where I could see snow mountains. I enquired it was the route to Leh as well Skiing. Leh route was closed because of snow in Rohtang pass. I had to find another route to Leh now, but by road and not air. I went to taxi service counter for enquiry. A driver told me Leh route is closed and I might go via Srinagar. Bus to Jammu goes at 4PM from the bus stop and I can Ski in the morning. 1500 for vehicle and 2000 for Skiing. Fair enough. I did not knew this was too costly but I accepted. I went to hotel, took the house keeper and bought 3 beers and cigarettes. He and I drank 1-1 beer and talk for 2 hours at night. He told me his salary is just 3000 per month. Then he left and I slept.
        The driver woke me up in the morning, I took a bath and I checked out of the hotel. He took me to the Ski shop. I got dressed and a trainer joined us. We went to the Solang valley. The trainer and I walked from the parking and near a Maggi shop and he started training me. Skiing for an hour, I wasn’t even able to Ski straight. Either he was a bad trainer or I was a bad learner. We had Maggi and tea. We left the Ski at the Maggi shop and we walked to a temple on the snow over hills and rocks little far from where we were Skiing. Also the place got crowded in some time. We went to the temple, then I saw a small waterfall over a hills. Guide easily climbed the hill but I took time because it was too slippery. On the hill, there was a circular boundary, in the middle there was shivling-yoni and waterfall on it from 50-100 meters height. I asked to click a picture when I am below the waterfall. I removed shoes, jumped in the boundary, got from one side of waterfall and came out from the other side, avoiding stepping on the shivling. He couldn’t click instantly, so had to stand in the cold water still for sometime. Then we came out and got down the hill. He went walking, I went sliding because my shoe was slipping. Then we walked to the Maggi shop, took the Ski and came back to the parking. Next we went to some camp, I don’t remember the name because it wasn’t worth remembering. There I sat near the road and drank the 3rd beer. I played cricket with the kids. We came back to the Ski shop. Trainer got down. Driver dropped me to some Forest park near bus stop.
        In the forest I walked and talked to few people about Leh plans. Then I jumped of the park wall and went to the Bias river. There were already many people. Not sure from where they came from. Sat there for an hour. Then back to the park. Again talked to few college kids regarding Leh plans. They told the same thing, road closed. Went to bus stop and bought a ticket to Jammu. It was a long journey from Manali to Jammu. Reached Jammu morning 6-7. Had tea in a stall. Enquired how to go to Srinagar or Leh. They said for Srinagar, go to Banihal railway station and take a train to Srinagar. There were direct bus to Srinagar but he did not tell me about that to fill the bus to Banihal. Banihal bus did not had even a single passenger who was Kashmiri, in fact all were Biharis. Reach Banihal by night. All trains were left. Many buses like mine arrived and the gate of the railway station was crowded with around 500 people sleeping in the station. I went for tea in a restaurant which is opened all night for the people sleeping outside railway station.
        From there I started meeting Muslim people. I had tea there several times. Cigarettes were finished. They offered me Bidi and for the first time in my life I had Bidi. There were 3 workers in restaurant. 2 slept on mattresses and 1 was looking out of guests. Vehicles kept arriving all night. At 4AM, I felt sleepy. I left the bag containing laptop with the restaurant guy who was awake and I slept between the 2 sleeping on mattresses. At 6, I woke up and went to ticket counter. Queue was pretty huge and mismanaged. Train was at 7. When train arrived, people left the counter and ran for catching train without ticket. Counter guy closed the counter for people who won’t go without ticket. If they get the ticket, they might attempt to catch a running train, so. As soon as the train left, counter opened and I was alone in queue. I took ticket for next train, which was at 8.
        At 8, got the train. After few minutes train went inside a very large Banihal tunnel, which took around 5-10 minutes to come out. The mountain in which the tunnel was dug was huge and snow clad. It was an awesome scenery to see the huge snow mountain from so close. Then the Kashmir started and it was so green and beautiful that there can’t be words to describe the beauty. Area around Anantnag station was very beautiful and few smaller station passed. Then came Srinagar. Got down and took a bus to somewhere. Someone told me for Leh I must enquire in TRC. So I got down from bus with him somewhere and took another bus to Lal Chowk. TRC was near Lal Chowk. At Lal Chowk I enquired about Leh and they told the same thing that road from Srinagar to Leh is closed as well. I was badly disheartened. If I would have been sure that the road is closed, I would have gone to Delhi and took flight to Leh in such case. But the options isn’t ruled out yet. I came outside the TRC and went to ATM because I had 0 money, 0 charge in my phone and 0 charge in my laptop. When I came outside the ATM, an old guide caught me.
        He was talking some shit but something came out of his mouth which caught my attention and that was there are trucks going to Leh in morning. I started listening to him and walking with him to his house boat. After that he told me you can go here in Srinagar or there in Srinagar, today you can do this and that. Then go to Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Sonmarg, etc in minimum price and make the base as his house boat, very far from TRC. He said he knows in and out of Kashmir. But nothing about trucks. After listening to his shit, I interrupted him about trucks. Now his statement changed. There are trucks going from Sonmarg. I can go to Sonmarg and find trucks myself. That would be my luck and he was not sure as well. Then took me to his shop. There guy told me Sonmarg is closed, which itself contradicted his own old man’s statement. When I pointed that out, the old man said he was talking about different thing though he was not even listening to him. Then when I was disappointed, I asked him to show me internet cafe. He took me to internet cafe from a very long distance (left-left-left-left). Internet cafe did not had internet. I just asked him to show me way to TRC. On the way, I enquired about Leh on a taxi stand. Same again. I decided to use internet cafe and book flight tickets from Srinagar to Delhi and Delhi to Leh. I walked till Lal Chowk, had some tea on the way, enquiring and searching for internet cafe. For some reason, I had no hesitation in talking to strangers and I was feeling very safe.
        While I was walking on the street looking for internet cafe, someone from behind greeted me “Hi”. I turned back and looked at him to confirm whether he was greeting me or someone else. He was an old man near about age of 70, who looked like Jesus Christ but his name was Abdullah. He began talking to me, asking me about me, telling me things about Kashmir. He told me he was a historian. He loves talking to new people and helping them get to where they want. He asked how can he help me. I told him to help me get to an internet cafe. He and I walked to the cafe. It took around 10 minutes. On the way he asked me if I don’t mind him showing me places around Srinagar. Looking at the fondness of the man for the tourists and the dedication he showed to help me, I decided to give this man some of my time just to not dishearten him, though I was very much short of time. We reached the internet cafe and both of us took 2 machines and began doing our work. To give the man a chance, I cancelled my flight from Leh to Mumbai and booked from Srinagar to Mumbai. We came out of the cafe and started talking again. He said he will show me temples, mosques, churches, cultures, monuments, etc and provide me the details of each, which actually did not interest me at all and I admitted that to him. He then himself told me that it will be better for me to go from here on my own. I felt relieved but what the fuck, I cancelled my ticket from Leh. I would have gone to Delhi and from Delhi to Leh. Damn.
        Then I walked to TRC and enquired about how to reach Gulmarg. I took a bus to somewhere where I got Sumo to Tangmarg and there I got Sumo to Gulmarg. On the way to Gulmarg, as we got higher, the surrounding got greener. There were trees on slants on both sides of the road. Then we reached even more higher, those trees were covered in snow. Then even more snow. When we reached Gulmarg bus stop, there was a long trail of snow and nothing else on one side of the road. I got down and my Sumo mates showed me a restaurant. 
        I went inside the restaurant and asked the restaurant guy Rameez myself does he have any room. He had above the restaurant a single room. I took the room immediately after some bargaining at 2000 for 3 nights because I wanted to use the loo. Then comes the hard part. When I stood up from the pot, roof hit my head, it was slant and low. After one flush, the flush did not filled again. Then no hand wash. I used my shampoo. Then no towel and then no water in room. I went down asked for water and tea. He just brought the tea but no water. For dinner, I ordered for Chicken Biryani. Then I switched on the TV but no network, I presumed because of cloudy whether. I switched on my laptop and start watching Sugandha Mishra’s singing performances. Then Rameez informed me that the biryani is made. I went to the restaurant, had my dinner there and came to the room. Biryani was awesome. I got over-stuffed and slept peacefully.
        The next day I got up and Rameez asked for advance. I went to the ATM and gave him 2000 for 3 days. Rameez asked me if I wanted to Ski, I refused as I did it in Manali. I thought I couldn’t do it. So I started walking on long sheet of snow. It was too foggy. After walking few minutes I saw groups of people in far far places. I had to walk carefully to avoid water bodies. There was a lake in the middle. There was a small slope which end up to a church. I stood below and was looking at the church, wanting to climb it. A Ski trainer came to me to ask whether I want to Ski. At first I refused but he told me to try for once because we tourist are their bread and butter. I got emotional :) and ask for cost. He said 350 for equipments and 300 for trainer.
        I was not confident I could even stand in this much snow. But this Ski shoes were so comfortable that I could balance very easily. He made me walk, Ski down small slopes with his support and without his support. He made me go down the church with him holding from behind. Then he made me fall from a steep slope and asked me to make a V-shape of leg to brake, same that Manali trainer told as well. I did it but my legs got split and I fell down backwards. Then he told me reverse-V-shape :) . Logically it made sense. From then I skied very well, without a fall. He and I smoked and I bought a Kahwa. Only tourist were allowed to smoke in public but not locals. But when I insisted he did. He made a seat of the Ski. Then I skied again from good slope and we ended the session with another cigarette.
        The place where I was Skiing turned out to be a golf course. I got out of the golf course and took left thinking I was going away from the hotel. But I was wrong. I reached the hotel and had bread omlet. I left hotel for another walk. I was just looking at something, another guide came to me. He made me emotional again by saying that he will earn 4 paise out of it. I went to a temple behind my hotel first. He followed me but stayed outside as he was Muslim. Then he took me to a view point. Then he told me to take a ride of Gondola, the cable car, but I had something else in mind.
        I wanted to trek the hill on foot, where Gondola goes. He thought for some time, then agreed. When we started climbing, there was only snow. Few water stream of melting snow. Then came house hidden in snow. Then trees in snow. Then only snow. These were like stages of trekking. We smoked several times while trekking. I used to get tired and hold my knees to balance and rest. When I got tired, the guide said that it will get dark while returning to get me faster. He used to pull me some time as well. Somehow we reach the top. There were small restaurants. I had Maggi and Kahwa in one of them. And Gondola, the cable car ride closed while we were having Maggi. When we started descending it was light, but when we reach the road it was dark. On the way, we used to hold each other shoulder to shoulder and run down the snow, even in steep slopes. He used to say, “I won’t let you fall. The first person to fall will be me.” And really he fell once while descending and I did not. We took pictures on the way up and down both. When we reached the restaurant, there was no power. I ordered for 2 teas and went to the room. I gave him 1200 for the trip and 100 tip. 
        That night Rameez gave me Kashmiri Pulao, but he could it in absolute no power. So it was not so good. In the morning, he asked me my plans. I told I want to go inside villages. And for breakfast he made Rees. Again I got over-stuffed. Guide came to my room. He first took me to Tangmarg in bus and from there the driver brought the car. 
        3 of us began the trip to village. We stopped at a hill road for pics first and climb the hill to the side of the road. Then we went to the village, parked the car and went on foot. We crossed houses, then farms, then river, then gardens. We took several pictures there. Then we came back to where we parked. It was driver’s house. They asked for food and I refused. The driver and the guide went inside to eat. I sat in hall-like room with hukka. An old woman of the house came with 2 kids from neighbourhood. One was 5 years old boy and one was 1 year old girl. The girl was very cute with red chubby cheeks. I went inside the room, where the others were eating. I sat beside them and ate with them, because I came to Kashmir for this and am not doing it. From there we went towards Baba Rishi. On the way, I took few snaps with goats. There I saw a man taking just born goat wrapped in a cloth and mother goat following him, requesting him to get to her baby, but the man took the baby away to wash it. This sight of motherly love was very emotional. We continued and reached Baba Rishi. The guide went inside the Mosque and came out. I asked even I want to go till where I can. He took me from second stairs and brought me out from third, means from where he went in earlier , I was not allowed. Then we started again and stopped at some point to take pictures. From there we went straight to the hotel. I gave them 2500.
        Rameez told me tomorrow is my checkout. He and I walked till ATM. I saw the bill of food I had. The chicken biryani and rees were too costly. I should have asked the cost before eating anything. I paid the bill, went to the room. Power had just come. I switched the TV on. I saw no signal again. I went to Rameez and told him TV is not working. He told me TV never worked. Damn. Got cheated. And power went again. Before sleeping I planned that I will go to Wular lake the next day after checkout and will stay in Srinagar near Dal lake.
        The next morning I got up, packed and came out to the restaurant with the bag. There were many people in the restaurant. They told me there are riots going on in the road to Srinagar. There was a peaceful protest and an army office shot 2 protestants. One is dead and one is injured. So because of this there are riots in various parts of Kashmir. And specially the city Sopora near Wular is affected by riots every time. I had to stay in Gulmarg and in the same hotel for another day. Rameez and his friends and I discussed about the Kashmir issues and the riots for around an hour. I came to the room and wrote the discussions I had with them in my laptop. Rameez also told me he went to Australia for Skiing competition. He was 19 and was hoping to get into the rescue force. He pays his men 6000 per month. I took Rameez’s phone for camera and went walking around in Gulmarg. 
        Complete Gulmarg was around the golf course. There was a road Outer Gulmarg Link linking all places in Gulmarg. Can’t describe the scenic beauty in words but it was simple awesome. There was a golf course restaurant. I went inside. A guy escorted me inside for my safety because there was some Islam Pravachan going on in a hall an the way to restaurant. Had rice and Chicken curry in it. Talked to the waiter. He told celebrities had come in the restaurant. But he doesn’t like Shah Rukh Khan because he doesn’t talk. SRK being my favourite actor was a topic or debate of my interest. But I stayed silent enjoying the food. Waiter escorted me outside the restaurant. There were National Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering on the way inside the road boundary. Then came army quarters and then Gondola. It was a walk to remember.
        I reached the hotel and ordered chai pakora. I watched videos continuously without break forgetting food and water and slept at 3AM. I left the hotel in the morning. Rameez asked for 900 and I gave him. When I was in the bus stop, the trekking guy came to meet me. He and I had tea in a stall, which was on him. Got a sumo to Tangmarg. From Tangmarg got a Sumo going to Srinagar.
        Sumo guy told that the rate will be 100 instead of 75. I said ok. Many of the roads were blocked due riots. Few roads were on fire. Needed to take U-turn from there and choose different ways. We entered a narrow road and came out again due to jam ahead. Then again the similar jam on another village mud road. The driver was scared as he had responsibility of 9-10 people with him. If I did not had flight to miss, he would have returned to Tangmarg. A passenger suggested a route and though narrow and jammed to some extent, he took the chances. Vehicles including trucks were moving both sides in narrow lane. To both sides of the road were small rivers. We finally reached Srinagar, covering thrice the distance and 4 times the time. He dropped and took just 100. I would have given him even 400, if he would have asked for it. He dropped me somewhere very far from airport but safe.
        I got lift to auto stand. Took auto to airport gate. He asked for 170 and I agreed. I discussed the situation on the way with the auto guy. Then I entered the airport. Airport process was very painful overall. 
        First had to do x-ray security check at the airport gate. Then took taxi to the airport and paid him 50. Then main x-ray luggage check at the entrance. I had 2 bottles of perfume in my bag. He asked me what were those and I told him. Then I went to ticket counter and took the tickets with no check-in baggage. Then security check again. Then manual security check. The office told me I can’t take the perfume bottles in flight and I need to check-in them. He kept the laptop and asked the rest of the bag to check-in. I went back to the ticket counter. He sent me to the main x-ray check to get it tied. Then had to stay in the ticket line again and get them checked-in. In ticket line, there was a marathi army guy in same Mumbai flight 6E-448 line. He asked me he needed to check-in his 9kgs of luggage, else he has to pay for it. I was fine with that. Then took my laptop from the officer and carried it in hand. Then there was passenger luggage check manually. The army guy and I did that. Then he told me let’s go to the gate 5. I was surprised because mine was gate 3. I checked his ticket and Damn, the flights were different and that too in difference of an hour. We went back to passenger luggage check people. They scolded the army guy for luggage polling. They asked me what if there is bomb in the luggage and he doesn't want to die with it so gave it to you that your flight is bombed and he is safe or what if there is drugs. I told him it came out of x-ray machine it must be safe, he is in army as well. They said nothing can be done, it will be difficult to find the luggage now, i have to wait in Mumbai airport for an hour. I was fine with that as well but how will I identify the luggage.
there is 1 luggage which is his on my ticket and 3 luggage one of which is mine on his ticket He wrote down to me his number and luggage identifications.
        I got the flight thinking so many problems in reaching airport, so many not useless but redundant security procedures. Why didn't x-ray lady told me about the perfumes bottle check-in, why didn't ticket guy told me and army guy that the flights are not same.
        I got down in Mumbai airport. I checked the belt for half an hour till when no bags were left. When no bags were left I went to air hostess for help. She told its mentioned you both are travelling together and all bags are in his flight. Nice at least its well mentioned but how can we be travelling together when we are in different flight. If I would have known that if his bag on my ticket is still coming in his flight I would have asked them to bring my bag in my flight. 
        I am waiting in the Mumbai airport for his flight and writing my whole trip.
        Basically my unplanned trip to Leh never happened. I could never go to Leh. It was an unplanned trip to Gulmarg. Basically it was lot of travelling, meeting people both good and greedy. Kashmir was a lovely place. No doubt its called a paradise in India.

Kashmir Discussions with Kashmiris

        I had discussions with many Kashmiri people regarding India Pakistan armies, in my unplanned trip to Leh. May be talking to me was painful for most of them but they did out of hope. They might be talking to tourists in same way to keep them happy or for hope. After 1947 independence, there were no army in Gulmarg or Kashmir inside LOC. Everything seemed happy to them, after all it was independence. Then came Afghanistan troops with swords. Indian army entered Kashmir in name of protection and they never left.
        Countries occupying Kashmir get lot of resources, so they never want to leave Kashmir. India and Pakistan all fight for Kashmir. The civilians get affected very badly. The armies get affected as well. The lands in Kashmir got occupied by army for their infrastructure. Kashmiri get just 100 rupees per something yearly for that lands. Government gave these Kashmiris no facilities and these people suffer even more.
        These people may be muslims but not bad people at all. They are suffering and protesting and dying in process. If people even protest peacefully, there are no tear gas or lathi charge like in Delhi, direct firing and killing. And it becomes a riot. The fights for rights become riots. The news spread and riots starts everywhere. Kashmiri are then blamed to be creating riots all the time and specially because they are Muslims.
        I stayed with these people for a week or less but I never felt unsafe with these people, not even when there were riots going on on the road to Srinagar. I never felt so safe even in Delhi or Gurgaon. Even the hotel guy offered me to stay in the hotel for free because going to Srinagar was not safe, though I rejected staying for free.
        These people have no problems with India or Pakistan or China. They just want army to stop bugging civilians. They want army to stay at the borders and leave their lands. Army don't leave cities to have complete control of resources. All electric power generated in the state is taken by Centre and then sold to state at higher rate. At these one of my friend in debate told me that when infrastructure is made by the Centre why won’t they take the power generated by it. Fair enough. But rest of his arguments were racist, so not putting it here.
        Civilians say if army is so huge in the borders how are terrorists entering in. Army themselves pay terrorists to enter and get arrested so that Kashmir remains in the control of the countries in name of protection. Naxals or protestants are not bad people or terrorists, they are just simple people who retaliate to have a peaceful life in future. These protestants when not heard might get aggressive or who suffer firing or killing in protests, become terrorists. These terrorists, specially in Kashmir, do not harm civilians much, but only army. There had not been any man older than 25 in Kashmir who had not been kidnapped by army for interrogation. Most of them had lost someone in family in Kashmir, who never returned. In 2010, 100 men went missing and never returned. Their families still hope their return.
        Countries don't leave Kashmir because they lost many soldiers protecting it, but civilians die even more; and also the resources. Its all politics and game of money.
        They showed me the photo of the boy who died today in protest, another got injured (who died eventually next day). They also showed me the photo of a 16-17 year old boy who was kidnapped, interrogated and encountered by the army being called a terrorist because his brother was a terrorist and he met him some day before that.
        Civilians don't need army in their cities or villages, they have police for these things. Armies can return their lands.
        They don't hate India or Pakistan or China but they get messed up in the wars. They want independent country of Kashmir to stay safe. They prefer India to guard them but at the borders of complete Kashmir (India occupied Pakistan occupied China occupied all inclusive) till the time they don't make their own army. In turn they can pay the armies or India for protection in terms of money or protection or electric power or water. But it this can’t happen. WHY? Politics.
        An older man did not vote because he thinks nothing will change. The younger one voted for BJP in hope. Others say by bringing Modi or BJP in power they hoped something good, so many voted for him. But nothing changed because Centre will keep over-powering state and anyway it had not been too long.
        Politicians or army could never understand problems of these people. We often say army people have hard life, we say army people lose life. No second thoughts on this. But these people have worse. These Kashmiri people live in constant terror and they used to it now; yet they are called terrorists.
        Kashmir has lot of colleges and schools but no employment scope. Tourism is only way they feed themselves. Apple farming earns them some more to villagers. They go to cities like Delhi and Mumbai for employment they are seen as naxals or terrorists.
        These people have to challenge the climate, government and military throughout their life.

 Disclaimer: These are just the talks the Kashmiris had with me. None of them are my interpretation or views, just talks. Also I made no manipulations to what they said.