Philosophical stuff!

"Our life is always uncertain, it's a short period where we meet many people..of them there will be some good ones.. before u run out of time and die..appreciate them..and let them know that you respect them and love them...be good to people..make friends..and die happily"

Learn some Etiquettes

Like any other day I was very busy reading the tweets I follow and posting some interesting links. Thats when this post by a person @harry_jerry caught my attention. The whole transcript follows.

harry_jerry:-RT @unitechy: basturrd politicians.. can't even solve load shedding problems. all they know is to fuck the country. assholes!!!!

Me:- @harry_jerry sorry to say sir, that wasnt a gr8 comment to RTed, when we hav many listening to us i think a decorum has to be maintained
Me:- @harry_jerry well u may say unfollow,which is a click away,I think in public forum things have to be kept subtly and politically correct way

harry_jerry:- @just08in get a life! If u're looking for decorum you're in the wrong place, try a classroom instead! @unitechy made a true point there!

Me:- @harry_jerry wow.wat an insightful point and u were enlightened by that. where were u living all these years?? in woods??.GOD bless u

harry_jerry:- @just08in huh! If you disagree with @unitechy's point there then you're the one living in the woods or you're some NRI brat!

Me:- @harry_jerry well dude read my point again, I nvr disagreed with anything, I said point can be put subtly and in a way everyone appreciates
Me:- @harry_jerry anyway i dont care now, cos am no more following u..so let peace prevail!.. good luck!

harry_jerry:- @just08in you should've done that in the first place, instead of trying to be the 'class monitor' here! Good luck to you too!

The end.. dint want to continue anymore..It is very true that "Every fool finds a greater one to admire them."

I followed him thinking he was an interesting person from his blog but I dont want to follow someone who has no view point of his own and seconds some silly comment of a "girl" just to get some yays!. Personally, I've nothing against him.

And would like to quote a Jewish quote here "Don't approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from any side."


My Take:-
There are many occasions where we get really frustrated and we tend to swear on others or things. But when we are in public we should understand that we are bound by some rules. When there are many people of different age groups and backgrounds listening to you, you got to keep in mind the right usage of words.
I was watching the videos of MTV MTV Splitsvilla and MTV Roadies in which the participants are given well scripted dialogues with all types of swear words. I was shocked when I saw that. The participants are very well aware that they are being shot and aired. In all their senses they fake the emotions and blurt out the mugged up dialogues. It so seems like using swear words is the "in-thing" and it sells thats what MTV has proved.
My suggestion to people who can't control their emotions if you want to express things in our own try it in your blog or in your home. May be your parents will be proud of your vocabulary.
I want to buy this Tee shirt and show it to all those people who are facing this problem, I think we should coin a new term for this disorder something in the lines of dyslexia. Readers please do the required.

Thats all!

PS:- I hope I've maintained my dignity throughout!.

Doodle!

I was challenged by my Guru to explain the respiratory system with a neat labelled diagram. Thats when the doodle came to handy!. Thank you.. Yahoo!
I hope it's very clear to all my readers. Any doubts!! please don't hesitate.

The next one is a real masterpiece! I don't want to take the whole credit for that. Another artist friend of mine was also involved :)


Ok I know what you'all would be thinking now. Yes am jobless :)

Hare Krishna ..Hare Rama

This is very different!. These songs are supposed to be enjoyed by Hippies. They have dope and then it goes on..

Om Namah Shivaya!

I feel his voice has some magic. I am spellbound by the song.

Happy Birthday :)

This one is a special post for my blog.Not only it is it's 4th Birthday also it's the 100th post :D. Finally off the nervous nineties and writer's block :))
On the new year day,I made a resolution that I would write 8 posts every month this year. With this am breaking that. Can't help ya it's after all my alter-ego's birthday.



Previous Birthdays!
Just Born......It's a brief intro about me..

First Birthday...... This is something special for me.. read the comments :D

Second Birthday......Was at Riyadh,Saudi Arabia

Third Birthday.....Blog reached its adolescence :D

..Now it got old.....soon a day will come when it becomes history!

Who Should Paint You

Who Should Paint You: Salvador Dali

You're a complex, intense creature who displays many layers. There's no way a traditional portrait could ever capture you!

What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?

I'm so depressed that no artist can paint me...:(( sulk sulk

Outsourcing - Good or Bad

I found this blog which goes by the title "Venture Level - Entrepreneur" created by Romil Patel. I should say that this blog is a must read for all those who are interested in starting their own firm and for all MBA students. This blog discusses anything involved with being an entrepreneur, running a business, or any personal success strategies

Romil Patel is a serial entrepreneur. Romil is currently involved with a few different online ventures as well as many ventures off the internet. He is very experienced with running businesses in retail with investments in well known franchise quick service restaurants, convenience stores & gas stations, and in the hospitality industry. Romil enjoys discussing how to better business "game" and strategies for entrepreneurial success.

There is a post on outsourcing ("Is Outsourcing Viable?") in which Romil has put out a few interesting observations. That kept me thinking over sometime and even I came out with my comments. You can find both of them below. It will be great if anyone throws some more light into the issue.

A lot of businesses do it these days and there is usually one major benefit to the company, if not more, which is cost effectiveness. Outsourcing has its ups and downs, but in my opinion, I would rarely, if ever, outsource any of my business work. Now that doesn't go to say- you shouldn't hire companies to handle "one time" work, but you should consider the following when you outsource your work.

There are too many loose ends. Any new entrepreneur that is starting out a company, probably doesn't have much start-up capital, so they look to outsource some work, instead of hiring help to work under them. This is usually okay, but sometimes when starting out a new venture, you are really worried that your project will be exposed or even worse- stolen. Yes...you can probably sue someone or a company if they steal your ideas and make them their own, but honestly- if you didn't have the capital to hire someone to work under you- what say's that you have the capital to hire a lawyer and destroy the opposing party. So the bottom line is- hiring in house, can keep loose ends limited.

Time is wasted. Just like when you purchase a custom product from a company and then you want to make changes to the order, it sometimes cannot be done or it will just take a longer time. When you outsource, every change, be it minor, will take time to implement. If you are doing something in-house, changes are followed through on much faster and easier to work with.

You don't know what's going on. What does that mean?...Exactly what it looks like. When you outsource, you rarely know who is working on your project and beyond that- you just don't have the power to know what is going on at all times. Whenever we're working on a big project at any of my businesses, I always check in on the progress and anything else that has came to be a possible road block. I'm pretty sure most successful entrepreneurs I know, always like to have that power.

Quality is unknown. Whether you are outsourcing a small project or a long term part of your business, you don't know how the daily operations are actually being handled. For example, a lot of companies outsource their customer service call in centers, outside the U.S. I'm not saying that it is a bad thing, but a lot of customers are often dissatisfied, from what I hear, by the inefficiency to communicate clearly. If you are outsourcing some of your business, how do you know that the company will uphold the quality behind your company in the same way?

Employee talents are YOUR asset. As previously stated, outsourcing can mean various people working on your project. It could be a team of all stars or a team of people who know very little about what they are doing. Whatever it is, you just have access to their talents (or lack thereof), for the time being. When an employee is working for you, in-house, you have access to their talents, until the remain your employee.

There is a lot to digest when thinking about outsourcing, in which some cases it can be a great opportunity, but sometimes turn into a disaster. Entrepreneurs who are looking to outsource should always map out two scenarios. One of the possible outcomes if they do outsource and one where they don't. After everything is mapped out, it gives a better prospective on what route should be pursued.

I am a supporter of Outsourcing and my comment to the above post goes like this.

Outsourcing is a tactic to reduce cost but that itself is not the sole intention. It is actually trying to improve efficiency by concentrating on our core area and outsourcing the not so critical activities to someone for whom that part is a core competency.

"Time is wasted". This would happen even if there is an inhouse IT team with a typical hierarchial structure. I think by having a proper service level agreement and contract specifications this could be avoided.

"You dont know what exactly is going on". I would agree to this to some extent but again a lot companies offer enough transparency on what's going on who is working and his competencies etc. A regular check on status of project and by having prototyping etc. also could do away with this. I somehow feel you posed a problem but not what the industry is doing to workaround for the same.

When you said 'quality is unknown'. It seems you are very pessimistic on the idea of outsourcing. The trust on the 3rd party should come from his testimonials and past track record. We have to select someone who is considered to be good in the industry. Every respectable company would like to deliver a quality product/service.

I would like to end the comment with one very important advantage of going for outsourcing. The company to which the work is outsourced would be having multiple clients in multiple geographical locations. With this there will be an exhaustive knowledge repository being created. This knowledge which typically consists of the industry best practices can be used across it's customers. This will eventually help in improving the quality. There is enough scope for geographical level,product level and customer level spillover

The 2 scenes I love to watch even a zillion times

I don't think anyone other than Will Smith can do this better.


If you want something. Go get it. Period!

Please help baby Ayush!!

It is very sad that Ayush will lose his hearing ability if not treated soon.
Please pray for him and contribute to the cause.
Thanks.

Note:- Click the photo to reach the blog where you can find the details about his health and the medical reports.

25 random things about me...

I was tagged by many to write 25 random things about me...well to get rid of my writer's block..I will give it a try
In this one I'm going to reveal the darker side of me as well..so read it with a broad mind..and don’t jump into any conclusions.......cos I'm good :)

1)I'm an Aquarian


2)I am an egoist, but I try to be as modest as possible. I don't expect to be treated as special one..and be a cynosure ... but if some one acts smart in front of me taking advantage of my modesty I get really bad.

3)I am a GOD fearing person. Every day I get up, the first thing I do is look at the photo of GOD. I do pray whenever I visit some temple. My prayer is very short. I do it in my mother tongue, " Swamy ma amma nannu nu eppudu santhosha pettali" and thats it there ends the prayer. If I have to wait longer I repeat the same thing.


5)I believe am a strong willed person. I don't like to give up on anything. I will fail but not give up. That is one reason that made me discover the long distance athlete in me. Readers, I was the 2nd best long distance runner of my college.

6)I involve myself in many activities. I play football & hockey, and did play both in my under grad and even now. I'm part of the cultural events organizing teams. I'm part of many interest groups like trading,networking,adventuring etc.

7) I'm very well connected with people over net. I use orkut, linkedin, facebook, twitter, blip,youtube, blogger, digg, interscope and bloglog.

8)I'm very shy when it comes to talking to girls. I was never lucky in having a girl friend


9)In all the testimonials I got... ppl say that I have a good sense of humor, so I believe that..


10)Currently I'm in Bangalore and I miss my bike, speakers....

11)I have this hidden desire of becoming an actor..don't mind even if it's a villain or a supporting actor..:)

12)By the time I turn 40 I would like to set up an empire...a conglomerate of companies..yes obviously not alone..with some of my bestest friends...will drag them in.. :)

13)I lost 6 lakhs in one trade last year...took sometime to recover from the shock...from then I hardly did any trading. A big lesson learnt the harder way.

14)If all went well I would have made 12 lakhs out of it. I had a plan to set up a water bottling plant along with my friend with an initial investment of 50 lakhs.

15)I can speak Telugu, Hindi, English very fluently. Understand Tamil and speak a little. Can speak a little of Arabic and French. Currently learning Kannada and Bengali.I did a course in Japanese

16)I'm always ready to give free fundaes to anyone. I know there are a lot of people out there who have been victimised by my unsolicited tips/suggestions/ideas/advice


17)I once said that I'm secular by heart. Let me tell this. I used to love the Namaz(Salath) read out when I was there in Saudi. And many times I used to recite along with it.

18)I have this weakness, which is getting worse. I can't explain things in crisp. I'm so used to writing the long globe answers that I end up writing too much for even the silliest of the questions.

19)Don't even dare to ask me the story of the movie I watched. I will narrate the whole screenplay for u giving u the actual feel of the movie. I can't help it. I can't even cut it short.

20)I don't like to drink tea, coffee, milk and any fizz.

21)My academic interests are Mathematics, Statistics, Economics(lately discovered) and Finance.

22)My other interests are traveling, social networking, blogging, playing computer games and sketching.

23)In Hollywood I find Kiera Knightley and Scarlett Johansson very beautiful, In Tollywood I like Charmy :D..just recently..



24)Of the books I read some books which I really liked were Iacocca and Wings of Fire

25)Some movies which I can watch again and again without getting bored are Life is beautiful, Shawshank Redemption, Pursuit of Happyness, Sarfarosh…






Huh!.. 25 is too small a number to write about me. I wrote them randomly and there is no logical flow of the points.


Note:- I've no intentions to steal the images, infact I've used the links giving credit to the owners of the images. If any of the creators have any issue please let me know I'll remove the image.

The party at Darjeeling

All of us were high :)..yea at 6900ft above sea level

The Trip to North East - Part II

After the long 1st part now comes the 2nd part, I've no idea how long this one would be.

So after the adventurous trip from darjeeling we finally reached Gangtok. We checked into this hotel called Shonali international. A 3 bedroom suite costed us around 450 bucks..Now the 3 bedroom is not a room with 3 beds..But a bed which is large enough to accommodate 3 normal sized people...so our soham was obvious left over. He got a special bed. The worst part was there was water problem all over Gangtok. It was the 3rd day they were facing that problem. The hotel service people were kind enough to get water in buckets for us whenever we asked for. Another strange thing about Gangtok is that the city sleeps early. By 8:30pm all shops and hotels close down. We went out at 9pm and there were hardly any hotels. There was one hotel called Bayul which was open at that time with no customers in it. We were happy to find it open and went in and sat there. The lone server gave us a menu and asked what we would like to order. Whatever we asked for he said it wasn’t available..finally we asked him to get whatever he has.. for that he said he just had 2plate chicken and no rotis... we got pissed and left that hotel...and then went further..finally we found a hotel called Tashi Delek restaurant. This one is big and has an open air restro also. We got something there but it was not upto our satisfaction levels. By the way Tashi Delek is "Namaste" in Sikkimese.

While coming back to our hotel we took a taxi, thats when we met this person Dhava(Dhaba). He is a very active person. He told he would arrange for our Nathula and Lachung trip, initially we were a little sceptical about the guy so we didn’t pay him any money but later we realised that this guy is a gentle soul. Infact most of the Sikkimese people are very cordial. They respect the tourists because tourism is their daily bread and butter. So you can trust any Sikkimese person. The next day we left to Lachung which is around 150kms from Gangtok. The trip costed us 800 per head. This is because it's off peak season else it could go up till 2000.

The way to Lachung is one of the worst ghat roads I've ever seen. There were even quite a few of breathtaking moments while going. You see warnings about shooting stones and landslides. The road is narrow and it is a 2 way road. The driver of our cab was Mr. Dhrubha. He is one arrogant rash driver. He doesnt like following any vehicle..He will do anything to overtake that vehicle. So just imagine with all this it was one hell of a ride to Lachung.

The first stop was at “Seven sister falls”. Its called so cos the waterfall before touching the ground hits seven rocks and changes its course. We stayed for sometime and took some pics.


The waterfalls in background



Then we moved on to a place called Rang Rang, where we had our lunch in a hotel. We got nice dal and fish curry there. This food was also included in the package.



The next stop was some waterfalls I don’t remember the name, If some one knows the name of this waterfalls please to update me. We took some pics there, I almost broke my bones. I slipped on a rock but was lucky to get away with just some scratches. Then we moved on.



We were getting closer to the mountains covered with ice. It was getting colder and dark. We stopped at another water falls. This one is the scariest waterfall I've ever seen in whole of life time. It falls from a great height. The height of which is not mentioned anywhere. This waterfall is called Amitabh falls for the obvious reasons. The water there was so cold that I was shivering inspite of wearing 2 shirts and a jacket over that.


You can see me in the pic..


A full size photo of Amitabh falls

At around 6pm we finally reached Lachung where we checked into a small hotel. By then it was pitch dark over there and there were no street lights but still we decided to check out the village. We walked for quite a long distance, The following pic shows the wooden houses in the village.


Can you see a kid posing for the photo

The next day morning we left to the place called Yumthang, where you get to do skiing but to our disappointment the way to Yumthang was blocked because of an avalanche. So we stopped 7kms before Yumthang and played with ice over there. We were disappointed with the trip because we couldnt do the skiing which was the main reason for coming to the place.


Snowman

We left to Gangtok that afternoon around 2pm. In the mid way there was some landslide and all the vehicles were stuck up on either side of the road. It took around 4hrs for the whole thing to clear up. The BRO came and cleared it using bull dozers and dynamites. We explored the hilly village in mean time.


The Landslide

Finally we reached Gangtok at around 9pm. By then our hero Dhava was ready with all processing for Nathula. Dear readers for Nathula you need to get permits done a day before and it’s better you get it from some travel agent. We checked into another hotel called Viewpoint hotel. This hotel costed us 550 per day and even in this theres one large bed and an extra bed. I chose the extra bed :). We then planned to go to casino but the hotel wala was very strict he told that he would close the gate of the hotel at 10:30 and after that even if some one bangs the gate no one would open, he even told us to check out if we want to go out. So we gave up the idea of Casino. That night me and Soham tried weed :) I dint get high with it may be cos of the quality of the weed. This is the first time I tried and probably the last time also.

The next day we got up around 8, and got ready for the Nathula trip.
The driver of this cab was Sunil. Along with us there were 2 families. A couple sat in the front seat. The second family was a Rajasthani family consisting of mom, dad and 2 sons. They were so excited that we were from IIM Calcutta :). They asked us to guide their son, Most of the time I was silent but my friends Soham and Swadheen were active in giving free fundaes :). Somehow the discussion went on about girls. Thats when the lady told that girls in Darjeeling are so beautiful for which 3 of us concurred but our ultra pseud Kalyan refuted saying girls in Europe are beautiful. There was a pin drop silence after that then I again broke the silence saying I am a desi and I like only desi stuff ;)

We reached Nathula at around 11pm. It is at 14000 feet above sea level and cold and windy. My hands shivered even after wearing gloves. I couldnt click the camera properly, It was that bad. We went close to the gate,which was electrified, and took pics. The Chinese rang a siren and warned us. Our Accountant was shouted by Chinese military people personally when he stepped on the barbed wire.


That's where we were warned by Chinese


Look at the Chinese army man looking at my friend's feet.

After this we left to another point called Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir. It was constructed in memory of a person named Harbhajan singh who was in army and died during his service. It seems after his death he appeared in dreams of people in army and warned them of all impending dangers like avalanches, attacks etc. The army people are staunch believers of him and whoever passes by that route stop in front of it and leave only after offering prayers.


Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir

We bought some souvenirs there. Then we left to Tsomgo lake a video of which I already uploaded. In simple words it's heaven on earth. For a beautiful description do check the video. We took a yak ride there. The Yak on which I sat was called Jack.


Tsomgo Lake

Then we went to Sherbathang market where we bought some more souvenirs and had our lunch( wai wai and chowmin).


Hot Hot Wai Wai


We then left to Gangtok and reached there around 8pm. We requested the hotel wala to keep the gate open atleast for that one time for us. He was very strict over that but after repeated request he told he will keep it open till 11:30pm and will close the very next minute. We thought something was better than nothing and left to the Casino. It was a nice experience there. We initially lost our money in roulette but later with some strategy made up for all the loss, We then left the place and while coming out we met 2 of our friends who were coming to the Casino, we again went back to Casino accompanying them. This time we made losses again but were not confident enough so left. Finally it was not worth it :(

We went back to hotel at around 10:30pm itself. We talked to Dhava about our plan for the last day. We wanted to cover the Rumtek monastery, Lingdum monastery and Teestha water rafting.

The next day we checked out the hotel at around 9am and got into the taxi. The driver of the taxi was Subash who was again very cooperative; He drove really fast for us so that we could cover all those places. We were running out of time cos we had the Calcutta train to catch on that day evening at Siliguri. We first went to this place called Banjhakhri falls, this is the worst place and I dont suggest anyone to visit this place. I think may be kids in KG may enjoy that place else it’s not worth it.

After that we went to Lingdum monastery. It was big and very peaceful.


You are supposed to roll that and chant this mantra "Om Mani Padme Hung"

Then we left for Rumtek monastery. This monastery is one of the most visited monsateries in Asia. A lot of Bhutanese visit this place. Theres a small book shop cum canteen to the right side in the monastery owned by one cute lady. She told she is from Kharaghpur. We bought the Buddhist incense sticks over there. Then we visited a Tibet curio, you get all antique stuff there, outside the monastery. The owner of the shop is Ms. Siring an old lady. We bought a lot of goodies there.


Rumtek Monastery

We skipped our lunch to do the rafting as we running out of time. The place where we do rafting is Millie. The rafting thing costed us 1400 Rs and a 100 more for photography. It was a nice experience rafting. We did for almost 8kms. The wind was very strong and it was difficult rowing there. We even got into the river and swimming for sometime. Then after rowing for 8kms we finally reached our destination. We were shameless to change our dress on the main road though there was changing room just to save 15 bucks ;)


After we were done with the rowing

We then left to New Jalpai Guri by our taxi. Thats it.. This is how our trip to North East ended. It was an awesome experience and I would like to suggest all my readers to try visiting North East atleast once in your lifetime :)

Things to keep in mind
1) Keep winter clothing when you are visiting North-East
2) Vaseline, Boroplus are must
3) Sikkimese people are very courteous
4) Kolkata mobiles are not roaming in Sikkim

A funny bengali song

This was taken on one of those bumpy taxi rides on the roads of kolkata outskirts. I found the song very funny. It will be a great favor if some one could let me know what this song is.

Tsomgo Lake

Tsomgo Lake also called Changu Lake is at an altitude of 12,310 ft on the Gangtok - Nathula highway. It's a beautiful lake and see yourself to believe it.

Credits:-
Background music : Swadheen's Sony Ericcson mobile
Narration : Soham
Camera : My Nokia 5700 Xpress Music

Sikkimese warriors

The Kid with black jacket is Deepak and the one with yellow shirt told his name thrice but I couldnt get it :(

The view from Tigerhills

The trip to North-East - Part I

I am back home after a week long trip to north east :)
I should say this one week I went through an experience worth a lifetime.
I've seen a lot of places and met people from different backgrounds.

Before I write in detail about them I would like to inform one thing to my readers that the real beauty is in north east, both the people and the places. A special mention to the women in darjeeling. They are simply mind blowing, just 2 eyes weren't sufficient :) to watch them. We met a rajasthani family while we were going to Nathula, and the lady herself told us that gals in darjeeling are very beautiful. She said that each one of them looked like kareena kapoor(her definition of beauty) and they dont need any makeup.

Male readers:- if you are single or looking for a change try your luck in darjeeling :)
I wish I get placed in darjeeling ;) after my MBA.

Title :- The trip to North-East

Starring :

Swadheen ( The Accountant - The whole trip was accounted by him, GOD knows the facts but according to him the trip costed altogether 21000/- ; by the way our man is interning with PWC)

Kalyan ( The Cameraman - The whole trip was captured by his Lumix, 18x optical,10Mpxl camera)

Soham ( The Late lateef - Right from the start of the trip he was the main reason for every delay, but whatever it may be without him the trip wouldnt have been so exciting. He was more like our guide)

finally
Yours faithfully ( Nothing :(..I was just a participant)

Disclaimer: All the persons in the story are real and any resemblance is well intended and is not coincidence.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6th Mar 7:30pm - We were still in campus at that time, With great difficulty we got 2 taxis and rushed to the Sealdah railway station. The train left the station at 10:00pm. We played cards for sometime and then crashed. It was very cold in the middle of the night and none of us got blankets with us, we tried to cover ourselves with whatever possible, tees,jackets etc.

7th Mar 8:00am - Reached New Jalpaiguri(NJP) station.It's 14kms from Siliguri. We had our breakfast there and took a sharing cab to Darjeeling. On the way we went through places like Kurseong,Sonada,Ghoom and finally reached Darjeeling. It got colder as we climbed higher. Thanks to Soham we got a wonderful hotel(Bird'eye view hotel) to stay.


Bird's eye view hotel


The hotel is adjacent to Cedar Inn(Where Shahrukh stayed for Main Hoon Na). The owner of the hotel is Mr. Uttam, a very friendly person. I'll give his phone number to people only on mail request. The best part was the bonfire, which is very unique to this hotel, on one side you can see the whole of Darjeeling and the other side the bonfire and booze.

Bonfire and Booze Party
(Uttam,Kalyan,Soham,Unknown; L->R)

8thMar 4:00am - We got up early to leave to the Tiger hills. It was so cold that we were shivering even after wearing sweaters and jackets. The spot at Tiger Hills has 3 floors and for each floor there is a different charge (I dont remem how much, may be our accountant will be able to tell this). From Tiger Hills you get a wonderful view of the Kangchen Dzonga (Kanchenjunga) , the third highest peak in the world, and the sunrise.

Sun rise view from Tiger Hills



Kangchen Dzonga view from Tiger Hills
(!#%#,Kalyan; L->R)

After that we visited the Ghoom monastery. It's a small monastery but well maintained.


Ghoom Monastery

Then we went to the Batasia loop. Here the train track is looped to handle the sudden decrease in gradient. I dont remember the name of the person. Our guide, Mr. late lateef, told some story about the
civil engineer and his wife how they resolved this. Here wore the traditional Nepali and had a photo shoot.


(Late Lateef aka Fatso aka Haggar, Cameraman aka Mamma mia, yours truly unknown, The Accountant; L->R)

We reached our hotel at around 10:00 am, thats when our care taker(Mr.Uttam) told us that the following day there is a strike in Darjeeling and no vehicles or shops will run. We thought over for some time and decided that it's better for us to leave the same day to Sikkim so that we can save one day. One of us,none other than the fatso cried over this plan. He wanted to visit the joey's pub and get drunk. We all said no for this as it was sheer waste of time and one full day was not worth for joey's pub. He had no other choice but to comply to our plan.

The next important thing for us was to find out the taxi timings for Sikkim. We wanted to take the last possible taxi to sikkim so that we could cover as much as possible of Darjeeling. First we visited the St.Pauls School, where the shooting of Main Hoon na took place, but to our disappointment we were not allowed inside. We then went to the city center to find out taxis for Sikkim. After a lot of researching finally got one, where we booked seats in a share taxi which would leave at 3:00pm(the last cab to Sikkim). It costed us 500/-(for 4 people).

Now we had 4 hours so we decided to visit the zoo. It was quite a distance away from our place so took a taxi for 100/-. There were a few shops outside the zoo with nice paintings and handicrafts. We bought some paintings and other stuff. After all that we were left with 1.5hrs, We thought it will not be possible for us to make it if we go to the nice chinese restaurant(Lakit) near our guest house, so we decided to eat at a chinese restaurant near the zoo itself.


Red Panda

We ordered for 3 chowmin and 1 fried rice(that was for me). The food was not so great. They served drinking water in bottles. I thought we bought drinking water so picked the bottle, later when we walked quite a distance from the hotel all my friends laughed at me for stealing the bottle. We took a taxi back to the city center. Once we reached there we then thought it would be better if we let Mr.Uttam know that we are leaving in an hour so that he can be ready with all the bills. His number was only with Soham but to everyone's shock he had no mobile with him. He cried saying he lost the mobile. We had just 45mins left with us. Our Accountant told he would go to the chinese restaurant to find the mobile and will wait at the Sikkim cab stop. We three of us left to our guest house.

Our man, Mr. Soham, stuffed himself so much that he had to rush to loo urgently. We took a taxi back to hotel. While climbing up in one of the steep uphills the car coming on the other side got stuck and we all had to get down to push the car out for sometime. It was one of the most desperate situations, at one side we were running out of time and at the other side Mr.Soham was holding his butt :). Finally the taxi could make it and we reached the hotel. We had just 10 mins left with us. We quickly packed our stuff and got into the taxi. Then Swadheen called up and told that he found the mobile but I didnt tell Soham about this. We were a little confident that our Swadheen would hold the Sikkim taxi sometime for us. We reached the place in about 10 mins and were happy that the Sikkim taxi has not arrived yet. We all sat on the steps of the shop next to this stop and were talking about the whole incident. Thats when the taxi driver popped up. He had the camera with him, He told he came to return that. This one was a shocker for everyone. We were happy that we got back all the stuff we lost. :)

There was one beautiful Sikkimese lady standing next to us and was arguing with a guy from the time we reached that place. We thought some fight between the couple.

We were pissed with the taxi guy. It was because of this guy that we had to rush from the time we booked our tickets as he told that the cab would leave at sharp
3 and will not wait for anyone. After almost 1.5hrs a taxi came and the person told that this taxi would take us to Sikkim but we will have to pay some extra amount to which said straight no. We argued for a long time with this taxiwala. All other passengers got into the taxi and the Sikkimese lady was sitting in the front seat,we four of us were in the middle seat.
The argument went on for 15mins, finally even the lady shouted at us saying everyone in the taxi has paid the extra amount and asked us to pay up so that the taxi would move. We finally agreed to pay the extra 300bucks. The taxi left Darjeeling at almost around 5pm.

This was each one's position in side the the cab.
Sikkimese Lady - Darjeeling Guy - Driver
Soham-Kalyan-Me-Swadheen
Chatterboxlady-lady-guy-guy

The Chatterbox lady behind us was talking on top of her voice from the time the taxi moved. We got used to that after sometime and all of us dozed off and slipped into dreams. It was getting dark as moved on. After almost some 3-4hrs when it was almost dark outside the cab stopped and both the lady and the guy in front were arguing. Me and Swadheen thought the guy is getting off there. The driver told Swadheen to come and sit in the front seat. I wished him luck to sit next to the lady, So our man immediately jumped off. But to our surprise the guy didn't get down instead the lady came and sat next to me. I was surprised on what was happening, I even asked out loud on wat happened but everyone was silent.

Now the positions in the cab are
Swadheen - Darjeeling Guy - Driver
Soham-Kalyan-Me-Sikkimese Lady
Chatterboxlady-lady-guy-guy

Later when the cab stopped at one stop for toilets, the guy went out; thats when the lady told us that this guy acted lechy and was falling on her. Then I thought from then I should be careful in all turnings. The road from Darjeeling to Gangtok is fully ghat road and has some infinite turnings.

As we were getting closer to Gangtok this guy started acting crazy. He put his hand behind the driver's seat and was pretending to sleep. He was trying to reach her. I was totally shocked on his behaviour, twice I pushed his hand the otherside. Once I put my hand to block his but still he put his hand over mine and was acting the same. I tapped him and told him to behave properly. Then he got very furious. He started yelling at me, and threatened to hit me. I just kept quite as I didnt want to take the fight any further. Our peacemaker Swadheen got into the scene immediately and tried to talk softly with him and just control the situation. I thought we were four and we could easily thrash him down but then our whole holiday will get disturbed, we may even have to go to police station, which was all sheer waste of time and for us time was the most imp thing at that moment.

We reached Gangtok and this crook got down before everyone. The lady asked us to accompany her till her place. We did so and our hotel was also on the same way. Thats when she told her name is Polin(Pauline) and she works in the high court. When she got down, she thanked her special friend Swadheen. Our man asked her for her mobile to which she said 9&^%,... " I dont remem my number" :-D

Thats how our journey from Darjeeling to Gangtok ended. I've realised how unsafe it is for girls moving alone in this route.
...to be continued