How much do we know about our country?

Himalayan Ranges in Rishikesh

Himalayan Ranges in Rishikesh

I went to a camping trip with a few of my friends. I asked one of my Keralite friend about his native city, he told me about a place in Kerala I had no idea about. Then some time later he asked me whether I had been to any camping trips before. I told him I had been to Rishikesh, and he talked about the Shivling made from ice. He was mistaking Rishikesh for Amarnath. This incident illustrates clearly how vast is this country and how much do we really know about places and people of our own country.

In the north, we have the mighty Himalayas. We have tourist places such as Ladakh, the Kashmir Valley, Shimla, Manali, Dharamsala and so on. We have pilgrimage centres like Vaishno Devi and Amarnath Shrine. Millions of devotees throng to these places every year. Kashmir’s beauty is so amazing it is called the heaven on earth. In the Kumaon and Garhwal ranges of Uttaranchal, we have holy places like Gangotri, Yamnotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. In the east, we have the fully mountainous state of Sikkim and Buddhist monasteries there are a major attraction. Further east, we have the pristine beauty of Arunachal Pradesh with its lush green forests and deep river valleys.

In the plains, we have the fertile lands of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Punjab is the land of 5 rivers while Ganga and Yamuna flows through the rest of the plains. In Punjab, you have the Golden Temple in the city of Amritsar. We have the historic capital city of Delhi in the plains with its famous Qutub Minar and Red Fort. In Uttar Pradesh, we have the royal city of Lucknow and the Taj Mahal in Agra is a destination many Westerners associate India with.

In the west, we have the majestic state of Rajasthan, with its forts and palaces. Its rich heritage, colorful culture, deserts, forests and varied wildlife make it a state non-parallel. There are tourist destinations like Jodhpur, Jaipur, Ajmer, Jaisalmer, Udaipir and Mount Abu with the Aravallis, India’s oldest mountain range as the backdrop. South of Rajasthan, we have the historic state of Gujarat. Art, history, music, culture, all combine with each other to form a wondrous matrix that is the cultural exuberance of the people of Gujarat. The states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh have seen many a battles between warring armies.

In the east, West Bengal stands tall with its culture, heritage and history. With the Bengali city of Kolkata as its capital, West Bengal is an experience in itself. In the north east, states like Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura are there with a large number of tribal groups each having its own distinct culture. The dense forests lying in foothills of Himalayan hills are stunning in their natural beauty, and are home to many of wildlife parks including Manas National Park and Kaziranga National Park, which are natural World Heritage Sites. Besides, lovely waterfalls and caves are another beautiful attraction of the North-East.

Go south and you have Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. All these states have their different language, culture, food and have everything for tourists ranging from backwaters to beaches to pilgrim centres to hills…. The beaches of Goa or Kerala are there, you have pilgrim centers like Tirupati and Madurai, you have hill stations like Munnar and Ooty, you have the backwaters of Kerala. Within these states, there are 5 languages spoken and the food in all the places have its own characteristic features. India’s highest waterfalls are in Karnataka and we have the most richest and most visited place of worship in the world at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

I would consider my life to be well-lived if I travel the length and breadth of this country in my lifetime..

Bandipur Ride

Bandipur National Park

Bandipur National Park

Murphy’s Law proved itself to me on two consecutive weekends. First, the plan to ride to Pondicherry with some friends on the Christmas 2009 weekend was cancelled at the last moment. Then, a ride to Lepakshi on 3 Jan with the Royal Indians club started off badly with the clutch cable giving up as soon as I started. So the ride to Bandipur on 9th-10th Jan was awaited with much enthusiasm.

We were 4 of us on two bikes, my Thunderbird TwinSpark and one Yamaha. Bandipur is a widlife sanctuary about 220 km from Bangalore. Just after you cross Bandipur, you get into Mudumalai Tiger Reserve which falls in Tamil Nadu. We got two tents for the one night stay near Gudalur, around 15km after Mudumulai Reserve on the way to Ooty.

We planned to start at 6am on 9th January, and finally started at 6:30am. We took the Mysore Road out of Bangalore and after the initial city traffic, we were cruising at around 80km/hr. We took a break at 8:10 am for tea after around 60km. We left again at 8:25am towards Mysore. The highway towards Mysore (state highway 17) was excellent and we reached Mysore at 10:10 am. The trip meter read 160km. We stopped for breakfast for 30 mins in Mysore.

After Mysore, Bandipur was another 85km and our camp was another 25km from there. We took the road to Ooty out of Mysore. After crossing Nanjangud and Gundulpet, we took a halt for 15 min just before Bandipur at 11:45am. The road after Mysore was not as smooth as the Bangalore-Mysore road, but was still pretty good. Near Bandipur, the road was patchy at places and road construction work was going on at some stretches. We started once again at 12 noon and reached the camp at 1:15 pm. It was 270kms done.

After doing our lunch, we booked a night safari into Mudumalai in the evening, chilled out in the camp, went by riverside nearby and took some rest. In the evening, we got some drinks / snacks for the night. Our jeep for the night safari was ready at 7pm. Soon we were into Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. Very soon, a tusker was waiting for us at the road side. Our jeep driver ensured we got a good look at the elephant. He turned the jeep towards it with the headlights pointed at its eyes. Basically, he scared the poor animal away. So much for the poor animal. We continued ahead but it looked like other animals were too scared to wander near the roads. We returned after a disappointing 1 hour night safari at the camp. Had our dinner and drinks and retired for the day.

Woke up at 6 next morning, got ready and left for Mudumalai on our bikes for a van safari. The Van safari took us on a beaten path and we managed to see deer, elephants and peacocks on the way. We came back to the camp after that. After breakfast, it was time for checkout at 10:00am. We decided to go uphill to Gudalur town to get some Chambala Tea which had a factory nearby. Thereafter we left back for Bangalore through Mudumalai and Bandipur.

Going through the jungle on our way back, we weren’t expecting much. But as soon as we entered Mudumalai, we saw a massive Bison by the roadside. Some cars were already stopped there taking snaps. We took the snaps and continued on our journey. Soon we entered Karnataka and were into Bandipur. We were for a surprise. As I rode through Bandipur, I saw two elephants, a mother and baby elephant duo, by the roadside. I slowed down the bike in the hope of catching a few snaps. But, to my utter surprise, as soon as I slowed down the bike, the mother elephant started chasing our bike. I never an elephant could run so fast. As it chased us, dust / mud flew up as a heavy truck has passed through there. I was startled and accelerated. But in the process of slowing down, I had taken the bike off the road into the gravel sideby. I could see the elephant getting nearer in the rear view mirror. Soon the bike was on the road again, we zoomed off the tusker faded in the rear view mirror. There were moments of panic when my bike slid into the gravel and luckily we didn’t skidded off. In the end, my bull was chased by an elephant but it was a good enough experience.

Continuing from there, we took a break at Mysore for lunch and two more breaks after that to ease our asses which were now beginning to ache. We continued travelling after that and reached our homes back at 5:30 pm. The trip meter read 580km over 2 days. In all, it was a good ride, riding a bike through the jungle was fun and getting chased by an elephant was the icing on the cake. After reaching home, we put our tired asses to rest. Rest till the next ride comes calling!!

How Cricket unites India?

Wah Taj!! Wah Cricket!!

India is a huge country, and not only in terms of area and population, but also in languages spoken, cultures followed, religion, and caste. The various castes, subcastes and languages make people living within these divisions very different in the way they live their lives. The festivals are different, rituals are different, food is different, language is different, and so on…

As you travel across this vast country of ours, you will find Pahadi people in J&K, Himachal and Uttranchal, Punjabis in Punjab, Haryanvis, Jats, Rajasthanis, Biharis in the north all speaking different dialects of Hindi. You will find Bengalis, Oriyas in the east. There are Gorkha’s in Sikkim, in the north east you will again find different kinds of people. Going down, you will find Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu speaking people in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, respectively. Within these states, again you will find more languages and dialects within smaller communities.

However, there is one thing which is almost constant across the depth and breadth of India. You will find children playing cricket almost everywhere on streets and open grounds. Cricket stars are treated like heroes similarly by the different kinds of people. Big or small, hindu or muslim, north or south indian, you can always play cricket together.

Hailing from Delhi, I don’t know any of the South Indian languages. I sometimes face problems when I have to interact with the locals who don’t know Hindi or English. Recently, I went to Bandipur / Mudumalai wildlife sanctuaries. They are on the border of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka so Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada, all languages were spoken by the people there. It was difficult to communicate there, but in the evening when people started playing cricket, everybody could play irrespective of the language. Because whether you know any language or not does not matter, being an Indian you certainly know the cricket language. You know the rules of the game, and can communicate with other players by using just that. It is amazing how people who don’t even know each other and are different in the languages they spoke, and the lifestyles they live, can play together as a team without any issues.

A game connecting a billion people looks amazing just in saying. How cricket unites India is an example in itself… In a nation that is divided by language, religion, caste and what not, cricket has proved to be a glue holding together Indians. It is a great sight when you see people cheering a Sachin Tendulkar shot or a Harbhajan Singh delivery, not caring about the state they come from or the language they speak. Sehwag is a huge star even in Karnataka and Kumble is cheered even in Delhi.

Cricket has something which is helping keeping this country together. Nothing binds India together as well as cricket. It does not matter which crop is grown on the soil of Punjab or Kerala or Bengal, you will always find a common sight, kids playing cricket over it!!

Five Point Someone and 3 Idiots

3 Idiots is on its way to break all box office records and the sale of Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone (buy on Flipkart or Amazon) has also increased since the controversy. Well, as they say it, no publicity is bad publicity. And a controversy always helps both sides. Having read the book as well as having watched the movie, I am sharing my views about how much of the movie is based on the book.

For any movie which is adapted from a book / novel, there has to be some changes. Writing a book and creating a book are two different things altogether. Converting a book to a movie scene by scene will never work, and the same is true for converting a movie to a book. A book will always have more details of scenarios compared to movies as a movie need to finish in 2-3 hours. So in comparing the two, one should not consider changes like this. You cannot say a movie is different from the book because the book did not have the songs :O

So here goes my take, I would say the movie is 50-60% taken from the movie. And if you take the crux of the movie, the characters, the twists and turns, it is 80% from the book. To justify these numbers, I am going to list all the similarities and differences I found. I would like to state that I am not related / contracted / hired by either Chetan Bhagat or the 3 Idiots team. Just giving my own personal opinion below.

The similarities are below-
• The characters of Farhan and Raju and their middle class and lower middle class family details are from the book.
• Raju’s sister character, the groom asking for a Maruti 800, his father’s paralysis, his mother’s constant cribbings is from the book.
• The main theme of the film, the problems with the education system is from the book.
• Chatur’s character is also from the book
• Ryan / Rancho being good at engineering and making innovative devices is from the book.
• Three friends meeting at ragging, where Ryan / Rancho takes the fight back to the seniors is from the book.
• Raju leaving for go with Chatur and then coming back is from the book
• Professor “Virus” as the director (HOD in book) is from the book
• Narration of the movie is done by Farhan, same as in the book where it is done by Hari
• Drinking rum of the college roof is from the book
• Raju jumps from Virus’s room in the movie while he jumps from the roof in the book
• Virus’s son dies from falling off the train, which is a suicide, is taken from the book too.
• All 3 go to Neha / Pia’s house in the middle of the night is taken from the book
• Stealing the paper from Virus’s office, the phone call getting them cought is also from the book

The differences are listed below too
• The beginning of the movie, 2 friends in search of the 3 friend is original
• Farhan’s faking illness to stop the flight is original
• The Sept 5 bet to come back after 10 years is original
• The Chamatkar / Balatkaar speech is original
• Rancho making a device to electrocute the urinating senior is different from the book where he breaks a beer bottle to fight back.
• Rancho / Ryan falls in love in Pia / Neha in the movie while Hari / Farhan falls in the book (demand of bollywood cinema)
• Hari / Farhan steals the keys from Pia / Neha in the book while she hands it to Rancho in the movie
• The character of Suhaas is only in the movie
• In the book, Ryan / Rancho gets bad grades like his friends while he is a topper in the movie
• There was no sister of Pia / Neha in the book
• “All izz Well” concept is original
• The delivery of Pia’s sister is original and the story around her
• The events associated to the wrapper of the story – 2 friends going to find the 3rd, Pia running from the marriage, Rancho becoming a scientist is original

Considering both the lists above, you can decide for yourself the extent the movie is based on the book. I would call it more than 50%. There are many differences too, but the main crux of the story, the characters, the theme, the twists and turns are all from the movie… You can leave your comments below, but remember, only leave your comments if you have read the book and watched the movie….

Whatever my opinions might be, I am not taking any credit from the cast of 3 Idiots (specially Aamir Khan) and its director Rajkumar Hirani who have done a wonderful job and produced a great piece of entertainment.

5 Tips to Keep yourself motivated

Want to wake up early for a jog, want to write on your blog more frequently, want to change a job, or want to learn something new. Motivation is one thing you will need the most to get you started and then to keep you going. So how to keep yourself motivated, day after day, and week after week.

There are some rules which have worked for me over the years to keep yourself motivated. I am going to mention them below :

1. One Liners – Motivational Quotes have worked wonders for me. You can find them around me everywhere. I have a quotations booklet at home, there is a one liner as my status message on chat networks and social networking sites, I have registered to many RSS feeds of motivational quotes and one liners. One Liners are great to say and make a great example to follow. Just read a book of motivational quotes when you are down and you are pumping again… This has worked for me for the last 5 years now and continues to work wonders..

2. Goals – Set yourself goals, then break them down into smaller goals and go after them one by one. When you finish your mini-goals, you get the motivation and belief to go for the bigger goals. Take these goals as a challenge, and go after them.

3. Don’t Quit – Once you start a task, don’t quit. Winners don’t quit and quitters don’t win. Another one-liner but conveying something very important. Keep trying your goal until you complete it.

4. Find a supporting friend – Find a supporting friend who understand you and keeps you motivated. When you feel down and out, you discuss with your friend and he/she will motivate you back to track. This friend should be someone who knows you well. It could be a sibling, your spouse or a colleague. The point is: surround yourself with positive people who won’t let you get demotivated.

5. Take Risks – Take risks, learn something new everyday. Understand that there will be failures along the way. No one succeeds without encountering some failures. Treat every setback as an opportunity to learn and strike at the problem again, but better prepared this time.