Category Personal

Pandemic Pastimes

While the shadow of the coronavirus scourge is receding, the virus has managed to ravage large portions of humanity. Covid-19 has brought untold suffering to millions and continues to affect many millions of people even now. There is, however, light at the end of the tunnel. Vaccinations have started and life has slowly started limping back to a new normal that would have been unrecognizable to most of us just a year back. I have been fortunate enough to still have my job, have my health and also have my family safe.

Challenging as these times have been, they have provided many of us the opportunity to take a step back and do things that we have always wanted to. Things that we always set aside for the lack of time. The virus bought the gift of time for some of us...

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Euro Trip With Friends (Part 2 – Switzerland)

So after a largely uneventful stay at Munich, it was time for us to leave for Switzerland. We left Munich on the morning of 24th August and after negotiating some city traffic, we were on the road to Interlaken. The road to Interlaken is peppered with scenic views – first the German countryside and then the Austrian and Swiss alpine beauty. We also passed through Lichtenstein, one of the smallest countries in the world, en-route.

The closer we got to Interlaken, the better the views became. We stopped twice just to soak in the natural beauty. Our first stop was at Mühlehorn, a beautiful community set on the shores of a lake with pristine blue waters. After soaking in the serenity we motored onward...

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Euro Trip With Friends (Part 1 Prague and Munich)

We (Shastha, Abhishek and I) had been planning a Euro Trip for quite sometime and now that Shastha has moved to Prague, the plan finally materialized. It took some hectic planning, a few conference calls and we were all set. Out itinerary looked as follows:

  • 21 August – Arrive in Prague
  • 22 August – Explore Prague
  • 23 August – Drive to Munich / Explore Munich
  • 24 August – Drive to Interlaken/ Explore Interlaken
  • 25 August – Explore Lauterbrunnen and Jongfraujoch
  • 25 August – Drive to Venice / Stopover at Lake Como
  • 26 August – Explore Venice
  • 27 August – Drive to Vienna / Explore Vienna
  • 28 August – Drive to Budapest / Stopover at Bratislava
  • 29 August – Explore Budapest
  • 30 August – Drive to Prague
  • 31 August – Fly back to home

As is evident (hopefully) from the itinerary above, the trip was a prett...

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Dudhwa: A Jungle Odyssey

Farewells can almost always be bitter sweet. A long time colleague just resigned. As is the custom, we planned an offsite farewell for him. The place chosen was Dudhwa National Park- primarily because we have been to Corbett so many times. The other thing that worked in Dudhwa’s favour was that it is home to the Great Indian Rhino. We have done umpteen safaris as a team, and the tiger has proven to be elusive except just once. So with high spirits, we set off on the 400+ km journey to Dudhwa.


The route we took

The drive to Dudhwa from Noida is a long, mundane drive but the company of colleagues and friendly banter kept the josh high for most of the drive...

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A Road Trip – Up South

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel to Mangalore and Udupi for a friend’s wedding. A few of us got together and planned a roadtrip from Bangalore to Udupi. We had heard a lot about the beautiful countryside and landscape that lines the highway. And we were not disappointed. However, what’s a journey without obstacles? We had our fair share of hiccups.

We had booked a rental car from Myles. When we reached the car pick up point, we were told that the vehicle allotted to us had met with an accident and they could not provide us with a vehicle. This was a real bummer. We really insisted on a replacement car and after an hour of haggling, they told us that they could provide us with a car – a Maruti Suzuki Swift. We readily agreed as we didn’t have other real options...

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Trip To Bangalore

I got an opportunity to travel to Bangalore in the first week of March this year.While it was an official trip , I was able to find some time for friends and leisure. Though, it has been more than a month since I returned, I still have fond and vivid recollections of the great time I had there.

The flight from Delhi to Bangalore is a long one (a three hour flight is long for me!). Long mainly because flights can be really boring. Thankfully, I had a window seat and I spent most of my time looking out. While even that can get tedious, I was able to spot this from above!

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India’s very own grand canyon – spotted from 35000 feet

Once in Bangalore, most of my time was spent at work but I was able to find time for a little sight seeing...

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On Big Game Hunting and What Africa Can Learn From India

The recent cold blooded murder of Cecil, the lion, by an American big game hunter has sparked outrage across the world and has taken the social media by storm. The hunter (I prefer to call him murderous coward) has also stated that big game hunting is an activity that he loves and practises “responsibly”.This statement brings to the fore the mindset of a culture that has eradicated most of its wildlife and biodiversity in its quest to pursue “development” and material benefits.

While the social media outrage does show that this mindset is abhorred by the majority even in the west now, it is too little too late. The forests of North America and Europe may once have had a dazzling array of wildlife but  many of the erstwhile  residents of those habitats are now gone forever...

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In Pursuit Of The Tiger

Like last October, colleagues at work were itching to go on a short trip to unwind after a year full of releases and customer go-lives. After carefully evaluating several options, we settled for Corbett National Park yet again.

Those who know me would know that I was delighted at this decision. I have been to Corbett several times but I never get enough of the place. The place has a charm that is unique among Indian jungles. What added to the excitement was that besides doing the ritual Dhikala safari, we also went for the new Dhela zone opened for tourism from 1st December this year. Needless to say, the new zone is beautiful with its slightly undulating safari trails and mesmerizing grasslands.

Without much further ado, let’s go straight for the pictures...

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Musings From A Campus Recruitment Trip

A few days back I was approached by my superiors at work inquiring about my availability for a short trip to National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra. I was supposed to be part of a campus recruitment panel. I thought about it for sometime and then confirmed my availability. I must admit, I wasn’t very excited to go. I routinely take interviews for open positions here. Though, they are important, I do not find them terribly exciting.

The trip,however, turned out to be quite the opposite. The drive to Kurukshetra is a short one. But on the way lies Murthal – the mecca of Tandoori paranthas and a most visit for any food lover. The interviews turned out to be quite interesting as well. The excitement and anticipation among the students appearing in the interviews was hard to ignore...

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Goodbye Orkut!

My first introduction to the world of online social media was through Orkut. I remember sitting in front of a terminal at the Computer Centre in NIT Jamshedpur waiting for the account creation to finish but the internet was excruciatingly slow. The date was March 7, 2005. I remember the date because a friend has been requesting me to join this network so that I could write him a testimonial. In the good old days testimonials were trophies that flashed on people’s profile pages. Fan count was pretty important as well!

When a friend suggested that I use the takeout service offered by Google to download a digital archive of my interactions [my scrapbook – this was before Facebook introduced us to the Wall], I heeded his advice...

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