Rant 12: the Second hike!

So, i guess it may come as no surprise that I absolutely love taking a hike!
this latest one takes us to Kemmangundi (i hope i got that right), which is a very scenic hill station about 7 hours from Manipal. located amidst the lush greenery of the Western Ghats, it is a very pleasant one day trek that everyone in need of a getaway should consider.
i myself was waiting for a getaway like this for quite a while now. I think maybe i was a bit too desperate, and obv any chance i get to go shutter crazy is reason enough. i went mad on this trek. my final tally after taking out the really crappy shots...was 312! this is by far the most number of pics Ive taken till date in a single session...in a day for that matter.
this was a trek organised by the adventure club at MIT manipal, thats RED-X. Even though i normally would have preferred going alone, the fact that we ended up with 2 filled up inter-state buses (if u ever saw one, u'd know what i was talking about), was actually helpful in me getting more and better shots.

so without boring ya'll with too much text...

Land formation at Sunrise point, first stop of the trek

full HD colour


a Macro touch







Rock formations


wow! check out those curves on that...rock!


mini waterfall...always a welcome break on a route like...


...this. En route to Z point...no that's the name, really!


see? the route...hence the name

Ze Z point (what I can't imitate french guys now?)


the one we didn't bathe in...Kattahi falls


7 kms to Hebbe falls...simply beautiful


crossing streams


en guard at Hebbe falls


my dream...is to fly...over the rainbow...well..waterfall!


halfway top


picture perfect end...


...however, there's always something more to think about

Rant 11: milestones

There are two milestones in sight as of now...
1) i have just crossed 10 posts
2) My college days are finally numbered...literally...i have about 46 days 14 hours and 2 mins (as of this moment) thanks to this lovely wittle widget i found yesterday.

Rant 10: For Argument's and God's sake

Of all the ***forsaken movies we've ever watched including those made by the master of satanism himself Mr. Bill Maher, needler in Bush's ass Mr. Michael Moore etc etc, here is one movie that completely blew me away...
ps: if homeland security is reading this then ...well..nothing....ukhaad ke dikhao!
it's called God on Trial.
A group of prisoners at Auschwitz concentration camp ( a lovely little retreat in Poland built by Hitler!) decide that enough is enough. The sheer injustice meted out by the Nazis is enough to warrant answers from the big G himself.

"But the horror of it! how can you put God on trial? and how is he to be represented. and we all know he himself can't come here, ha ha ha ha!" this last bit would of course point to a higher reason but we all know poor theists are 90% blind to it anyways. and that was not a quote from the film itself, but what i assumed theists would say to a statement like "can we put god on trial pleeeease!?"

Coming back to the story, what was perhaps most interesting, was that even in the face of extreme injustice, mass murder by millions etc, people were ready to believe that it was all part of a plan.
To borrow keywords from the film's dialogue, "the holocaust is part of a purification process." Yes! just like the great flood of Noah or the endless worldwide plagues, the wiping out of entire races was considered a process of re-modeling. it's like the god here screwed up often and then just so that everybody would think he was doing ok, would tag the humans as sinners, cleanse the earth and then start all over again.
hey he's god...what are you gonna do about it?
i remember bringing a similar form of enthusiasm for my 2nd grade drawing class.

anyways.

the principle charge that the Jews (primarily) in the film lay out was that God had broken his covenant with the Jewish people. This is something like a signed contract that God made with the jews. So apparently all the praying etc that all other religions did was simply false. or did god simply listen to them so that in the end he could finally realise his dream of imitating Eric Cartman and telling all non-jews:
na na na na naah naah...u got the wrong religion.... u got the wrong religion
and just for fun Nelson (simpsons): haaaaan haan!

it is here where i feel the BEST dialogue bit of the film comes into play...
firstly theists like to see the world as intelligently designed. How else could a structure so intricate as say the human body or any other living organism be formed and fucntion. all the wonders of the natural world, delicate systems etc. It all seems so overwhelming to the theist that it definitely looks intelligently designed.
I am a simple Journalist, not a scientist. hence i'll let one of my fav characters from the film, the lone member of science at the blockhouse -the physicist- talk to u for a bit.
(Gist)
" there are a hundred thousand million stars in this universe. and numerous planets like ours around them who knows? why do you people insist on believing that a god who can create a hundred thousand million stars would stop to make a covenant, a contract with only one tiny planet at the edge of an outer spiral? and not even one planet, one set of people, the Jewish people."

and staying with Intelligent Design gives us this peach of a (dialogue) delivery
There is mention of a certain kind of wasp that lays its eggs on flowers. The larve upon hatching then carry the flower's pollen to other flowers. it does not help the wasp for it cannot eat it, but it still carries it.
wow! what intelligent design

here is the physicist's reply:
"does the wasp carry pollen for all flowers or only Jewish flowers???"

(I rest my case)

Rant 9: holi shit!!

There's always been two sides to every coin right?
So as i slept away the summer heat on a day they call Holi , one side of the coin was literally being played out at a campus hangout area called KC.
Fortunately, we live in a world with digicams and one video from that morning session kinda looked like one of those Goa rave videos with just about everybody going nuts in single spot, if thats even possible.
Your's truly woke up at the ungodly hour of 12:30 pm under bright sunshine and explored the area thus ravaged.
warning: graphic content, viewer discretion is advised


..and in between (the mayhem) were caught the doors.


on they fought...the 300, err..30!

birds? planes?

no...its vests, on phone lines


battlefield Manipal


enjoying the spoils of war...cheeky bastards!


the immortal holi-war soldier.....adi

Rant 7: NightCrawlers 2, The Hunger Strikes Back!

One of the most humongous problems among Night crawlers is food. of course a smoke is sometimes an issue but woh hostel hi kya jahan bhenchod sutta na mila (to borrow from a very lovable song)
for me the hunger limit is reached near around 2:30 am when Russia and Japan have been successfully conquered by Germany (talking about Rise of Nations here) and there are no more cruel demons running riot (read: assignments). Manipal is one of the few places I've been in where cheap, delicious and most importantly Junk food is served at all hours. granted there is only one place here that delivers at say 5 am but given a choice between a disco night out and burgers from this place, on a day that i need cheering up, and i would def opt for the latter.
among other things, there is something wholly reassuring about sitting down in front of ur laptop, put on an episode of ur favourite TV show and enjoy the quiet of night-time from the comfort of ur dorm room chair, while gulping down huge bites of burgers. i was nicknamed burger-dash by my friends in my first year and now i do profess my love for this remarkable creation of man.
before i get too hungry and eat my mouse..
talking about nightcrawlers in general, it is quite interesting to walk down the hostel campus area at such odd hours. there are only so few people there that you can pretty much tell what each one is there for.
theres the guys who've come for the exact same purpose as me, i.e. collecting food. each "collection" is unique in the nature of the transaction. occaisionally, the poor delivery guy, who's been running the route all night, weighed down by 7 other packs of food, will forget a bottle of cola. it irritates the hell out of u believe me. However, my tired out friend, i do have sympathy for ur job. to be delivering all those delicious meals is a job no self-proclaimed saint will ever take up.
You bring happiness to the NightCrawlers.
...to be continued

Rant 6: "No, see? you got beep"

Our college kicked off it's annual Media and Communication fest, Article 19 on the 26th of February. Among the many eminent personalities attending as part of the resource team (workshops etc) one perhaps stood out for the sheer amount of beeps he might have got on real broadcast television.

the fest aims at promoting free speech. hence on the second day, i.e. today morning, this company called 3rd thought entertainment. one of their pitches was an "XpresR" yes that is the spelling of this Machine (???)

They began by explaining how everyone has different emotions (and i thought I was good...man this was hardcore insight). hence they had a Machine which played music according to these emotions. ok kinda cool yes. we all love music.
they also said that if u tried to play music from two different emotions, say love and anger then the music would jar and not be pleasing..or something to this effect.
ok moving on.
The time came to try this legendary Machine

and this is where it gets interesting
so enjoy...

the master and the slave machine


"oh praise the box"


"it works...I'll show you"



"see? you got music!"



"no, I'm telling you, this shit works bitch!"



"hmm...now what rhymes with shoe?"



"I'm getting too old for this"



"maybe if I sit here for a while"



"broken arrow here.. switching to laptop"



"hey...shit happens"


"ok techie team stand by"

Ladies and Gentlemen...the characters of "soL.O.S.T."

Rant 8: doubt

I have had quite a weird relationship with one of mankind's most pointless fascinations. yep i'm talking about everyone's favourite Reality show...the GOD show (not to be confused with GOD Tv though there really isn't much of a difference). i'm talking about the one reality show that didn't even need TV to begin with. Egyptians, Grecians etc made sure that we were all participants in this the mother of all shows.
Back when i was a kidI used to assume Mr. Gary O Donnel (the nice old man living up in the sky watching over me) was kind of a mean guy, punishing people with threats of hell for wrong stuff. so i did the necessary prayer time, at home, and mostly before exams. at that point, doing badly in exams was way way worse than say shoving the back-side of a pencil up ur desk partner's rear end...way worse.
i now realise that it was probably all the constant coaxing from my folks etc that got me the results i got...and not some 6X9 picture of a woman with ten hands. it's scary shit. i remember going to an Oriya association function one evening and the only thing i clearly remember is being shit scared of the black coloured statue of my people's god...Jaggannath. i was inadvertanly given the message of fear of the unknown by this statue.

as u can probably guess from earlier posts, i love "conversing". so now that i stand on a platform of uncertainty, i guess i have to take the matter up with the big G himself.

me: 'sup
G: How are you my son?
me: m doin' great. had some questions for ya though.
G: (sigh) what is it
me: how does one guy like you listen to the hopes and prayers of a whole fucking planet?
G: its a good trick u know. U dont really have to be listening even. my good friend, Mr. Bush and his dear dad made sure that my "message" gets through to everyone. that way when someone asks me for something (and this is by the millions everyday), i simply throw out random Yes's and No's. this way there's a very good probability that everyone will get somethi ng or the other that he/she asked in his/her lifetime. God bless America.
me: hang on...ur the god here i thought. did u just pray to urself??? and why does god feel obligated to bless only america. why not Jerusalem. I'm guessing the place where three religions were born should be a more blessed place than a place where crackpots like Joseph Smith emerged.
G: well you know, USA called dibs on me first.
me: dibs??? ok now this is getting silly.
G: It is. all of religion is just plain silly. take this conversation for instance. you feel like ur talking to god or someone right? wrong...ur always talking to urself. and for once, i'm gonna lay some truth on ur arse. this whole god thing is a sham. the little voice inside ur head talking to u, is ur own damn brain. Get over urself. all actions are either directly or indirectly a result of human action, and not a result of drinking my blood every sunday or lighting a thousand candles....i wouldn't even need candles if these stupid priests didn't put me in such dark corners of their temples.
and speaking of dibs, it is what politicians have always done. i'm sure u know how my good friend bush has made good use of MY concept and made life soo good for the americans. every social or geo-political master needs an element that binds his/her subjects; in order to acheive social control. apart from today's modern age, lets face it, when brother Ugger (pronounced ooo-ger) left for his morning hunt out of stone-age papua new guinea and saw his first lightning strike, he might have been just a little tempted to think there was more than just charged particles floating around. thus the first human Master emerged. and since it was Ugger who first noticed the lightning strike, thus emerged the first human Prophet. this cycle is repeated in every generation and it is how u end up with a thousand paths to the same frickin' destination.
Goddammit...it irritates me just to be talking about stuff which these idiots (the population) should have been clever enough to guess for themselves.

sigh....i guess man will always be man...and i will always be the product of a 21 year old's incessant uncertainty.