of movies and camps...

July 26th 2008.

It was a pleasant Saturday morning. A few of us friends took a RE to München from Stuttgart. I hadn't even thought, that I would see the world as it were 63 years ago. We boarded an S-bahn from München in the direction of Peterhaüsen, alighted at Dachau Bahnhof, and boarded the bus to Dachau. It was here, that I was exposed to a piece of the most dreaded chapter in World History.

The entrance was a huge one, but fully barricaded. There was only a small gate through which people could enter one at a time. Entering inside, I found the place nothing special. There were a few buildings along, and lots of empty space. We started with our guided tour, and our Ms.Guide (I don't remember her name any more... but she was a studentin of History.) walked us through the "Biggest Concentration Camp" of the Nazi Regime. After seeing the Military office chambers, we moved on to look at the "Elite Prisoners' " cells, and from there on to one of the 2 existing barracks of the originally constructed 12 of them. After this, she took us across to the "Gas Chambers", the end of world for the unfortunate millions, esp. Jews in Europa, who were caught, and put into these concentration camps. That day, I only heard what Nazi cruelty meant. (Well, in today's world, there are many more of such "Nazis", but that doesn't matter now.)

Today, I literally saw it all when I played "The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas". 8 year old Bruno, moves to the countryside because of his father's duties as a soldier. Being an adventurous kid, he starts to roam around the place, and encounters a Nazi Concentration Camp. There he meets another jewish boy Shummel, a name he's never heard of, who's of just about the same age. Their friendship leads them to another adventure. Shummel has lost his father. Bruno along with Shummel, decides to help him find his father. Bruno's mother, sensing that the place is not the right one for her children, decides to move back to Berlin. But Bruno, having decided to help Shummel., tresspasses into the Concentration camp, and dons the "Striped Pyjamas" like Shummel has always, and the 2 set out to search Shummel's father. As the two are on the lookout, they fall into a march of all the captives. They are taken to one of those cells, where they are told it is only for a Shower. As the two boys enter the shower room, darkness engrosses the chamber from all sides, but Bruno holds Shummel's hands tight assuring him of finding his father. This movie is one of the very few, that I would watch a second, a third... an umpteenth time, without being bored. The story originally by Irish writer Johm Boyne, is a splendidly woven story. Cruelty is not shown as cruel. It always enrobes itself in those more dearly abstracts like friendship, and love. Looking forward to reading the book.

For me, this movie stands out in its own wayz, though not a very pompuous one. Watch it if you get another oppurtunity.

one of my favourite photos...

This was at Kudremukh, about a year and half ago.

Kepler Wakes Up

Johannes Kepler. He taught the world how the planets behave. NASA yesterday (IST, UTC, and the day before, ETZ.), after letting him take a deep slumber, woke him up. NASA wants him now, to look for planets in deep space. I'm speaking of the "Kepler" spacecraft named in honor of the German. The spacecraft was launched in an earth trailing orbit (i.e. to follow the earth all along, during it's revolution, and not orbit the Earth itself.) at 3:49 UTC on the 7th of March. The slumber that I mentioned, is the delay of about a year and a quarter in the mission., which was mostly financial @ NASA. Being used to detect planets in the Milkyway, that are approximately at our Sun's distance from the galactic centre, and in the same galactic plane, It will have a probablity of locating "Earth like" planets for 1 in about 200 stars. Which means, with an estimated span of 3.5 years, and about 3000LY deep, Kepler should have, by the end of the mission, found atleast 350-400 earthlike planets.
Hope I find my loooooong lost cousin soon...;)

PS:If anyone wonders why the label "travel", then please remember, that Kepler has to travel too, to reach outer space. lol...

My blog never sleeps...;)

at 3AM before dawn, I definitely am sleepless for long beyond my normal routine. Reason? Neither do I know. As well have nothing else to do. The stars not in their brightest veils, nor are books interesting me. So, This is what you do when you're sleepless, and your interests do not interest you. Turn on your PC, go online, and if you have a blog-sphere, start typing into it.
But, then type what? without any topic...
Well, lemme tell you some nonsense...
It was born way back in 2001, but died out instantaneously... But then, its resurrection happened in 2006, and again in 2008. Interested to know a secret?
the name of my blog-sphere, and my blogger site address, have something in common. (Whoever is able to guess it is entitled to win a worthy prize.)
well, That's too tough ain't it? okay then... lemme give you a clue...
The blog site address, contains 2 names (or parts thereof). Guess them, n link them to the blog name.
Now, to say, when do I blog? well, mostly when I'm not able to tell out somethings, they come in here. Otherwise, all that I remember of from the past, present, and the future, and want to share with people. I still have a lot to post here, but am not really convinced that they be put up. Anyone who's good at understanding psychology through usage of language, can very easily find out what kind of a person I am. Otherwise, even if you know me personally, I'm sure you don't know my person. So, now that you have some hints, go ahead, and rediscover all that you can.

Let's see how far you go...

Good luck:) to all those who have an answer to this post of mine;)

P.S: this post was typed between 3AM and 3:50AM. only that it had to be posted late, thanks to BESCOM, BSNL and my dear PC... if it's been confusing to you.

A comedy of Terrains

One week ago, at about this hour, we had camped in the premises of a lonely house somewhere in the jungles of the Western Ghats. Starting off from Bangalore on Friday night, we reached Gerusoppa, famous for the Jog Falls, and proceeded towards a lesser known water fall called "Dabbe Falls". Our walk started off from a village called "Hosagadde", and a walk of about 5km to Dabbe, the house, which would serve us as a base. This fall is in the land vicinity owned by the family at Dabbe, and so, gets its name. We dumped our baggage, and backpacks at the house, and began our descent to the water stream around 11 AM. OH MY!! what a descent!! at close to just 10degrees to the perpendicular, and the Heater hi above at nothing short of 303Kelvin, we began. Thanks to the shoots, and the areals of all the banyans, we somehow found a grip for ourselves. Lucky us, the Sun had flushed all the blood suckers into the ground. (But, let me tell you, not being bitten by a Leech, somehow does not complete any Trek.:( ) After a descent for almost 45min, and about 350 feet, we caught our first glimpse of the gorgeous falls. "She was adorable":) after all the risks we took. Descending another 100 feet in the next 10 min, we were at the foot of the falls. Though the summer had limited the water that was dropping down, it was one sight not to miss. If this were the beauty of the summer, I stood imagining what it would be like, in the monsoons. Other mates, who were way behind also came and joined us in admiring the falls. But then, we gave them very less time. We splashed into the waters, and had a massage, that no sauna anywhere in the world will be able to give you. Water splashing from a minimum height of 30feet (after hitting upon the rocks), was gushing on to us, releiving us of all the pains on our way down. After about an hour of massages, we decided to move on, and amazingly, most of us felt that the way up was much easier than the way down. Again, courtesy the areals and the shoots all along. But we were almost as bad as we were when we started. Tired, and exhausted, we had our lunch that we'e packed at Dabbe, and after resting for a while, moved on to our next destination-KaNooru Kote. The fort, is now only a relic of a once thriving city fort, and the jungle has taken over almost every where. We reached the fort the next day at about 10-30 AM, and from there on moved towards Gerusoppa, where we were to board our bus back home. This leg of our trek was not really as enthralling as the first leg, to the falls. It was more of a "Jungle Walk" downhill. But Mr.Helios seemed to have no mercy upon us poor trekkers. Though we walked in shade for a fair distance, the heat was draining us out of all body fluids, and more-so, after taking a detour, that led us a long way to Gerusoppa, and walking about 2 hours more than the conventional route, we were literally camping at every place we found water. (Actually, even those from sprinklers in a land so rich with streams and rivers. that was our plight that day.). Finally, we realized we had detoured, at a tea stall in Gerusoppa, where the shop owner told this. Reaching the Sharavati at 4:30, we had a looooong swim in the river, and one of the boat riders even accepted and showed us along the river stretch for a while. This was to be the end of our trek, but we realized, that we were actually a while away from the KSRTC bus stand... This gave us another task at hand, but luckily, we found a KSRTC bus that runs into the old city once every hour or so, and it took us to our bus-stop. After finding that we were not fortunate enough for a proper dinner, was had some Upma, and Maggi, which we got prepared from one lady at a mess beside the bus stop. (Oh, and yes, we taught her Maggi-making...:) ) Gobbling it up, we were just fractions of a minute early at the bus-stop to board the bus that was to take us back to Bangalore.

With all that happened, it was a totally different experience.

But for those, who plan to take up this trek, my sincere suggestion would be to drop KaNooru Kote. it is just a long jungle walk, with not much exitement in the end. :(

Oh yes, one last thing to tell you... please do this. We carried a thrash bag all along our trek, and had accumulated a nett garbage of about 4-5kgs. It was dispersed only outside the tea shop in Gerusoppa. We are more responsible for the Earth, than any generation that has treaded Earth, or ones that will, in future. for, it is we who are to decide the fate of MoEarth.

P.S: for all those who would have loved to see the beauty of the falls, and the exhausted faces of the concrete jungle, treading "JUNGLES", I'm extremely sorry. None of the photos I clicked this trek appear worthy enough to be published.

The Character of a Happy Man

This Sir Henry Wotton Poem, is one of the few school days' poems that I still remember. Happened to read it today, and once more. We'd by-hearted this poem in 3 classes, but I've only till date, been to remember the first Stanza...

How happy is he born or taught,
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his highest skill;

Whose passions not his masters are;
Whose soul is still prepar'd for death.
Untied unto the world with care
of princes' grace or vulgar breath;

Who envies none whom chance doth raise,
Or vice; who never understood.
The deepest wounds are given by praise,
By rule of state, but not of good;

Who hath his life from rumours freed;
Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
Nor ruins make accusers great;

Who God doth late and early pray,
More of his grace than goods to send,
And entertains the harmless day
With a well-chosen book or friend.

This man is free from servile bonds
Of hope to rise or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.

Why somethings...

Why is it...

• that, whenever I decide upon something new, something new comes up with the old, and nails me to wherever I am?
• that, I've to give up somethings I've yearned for, for somethings, I've never cared for?
• that, whenever I say something, it is more often "miss"interpreted than not?
• that, most people still do not understand somethings with me?
• that, somethings strike people so hard, even if I'm as meek as I can be?
• that, somethings strike me so hard, even if they are not really at me?
• that, people take it for a laugh, when I say I'm "serious" about something?
• that, I still am not able to start off with somethings, though I've dreamt of them for long?
• that, I care for somethings, that mean so less to me?
• that, I realize it is just about time to see "someone" after long, but find out that somethings only get to be longer?
• that, i publish something here, inspite of being aware that there's none that really cares whether I publish or not?
• that, I pose so many questions, inspite of knowing somethings are useless?
• that, I publish something, which will give neither me joy, nor (if, then) to those who read this?