Certified crazy

One of the few things that I like about the new office - Sunsets. Every day, this part of the set of cubes suddenly feels lively. And about the only time I get some sunshine in my life

The outcome is so radically different if you enjoy what you do. People do notice it. You can’t fake it.

In other news, we had our Christmas celebrations today at office.

Over a cup of tea, we were pondering about anniversaries and gifts.

Boy: Anniversary - Every year, you think it can’t get any worse than this. But it always does.

What do visiting cards tell about a person that is not already a google search away?

Those were the good old days.

One year down. Don’t know how many to go.

So, yet another adventure club outing it was. We (the Ness Roadies gang) - a total of 41 people this time, went white water rafting to Kundalika river, near Kolhad, on the Mumbai - Pune NH 4.

It was awesome - especially the grade 4 rapids that we crossed. It rained for almost 50 minutes on the whole 2.5 hours spent in, and on the water. We got to swim in the river too - non swimmers included - in 30 ft deep water.

Nice way to spend a saturday.

My company was toying with the idea of an adventure club. The MDC guys put up a meeting of the ones interested, sometime after evening tea on Tuesday, and unanimously, everyone (around 25) agreed to go for a trek to Lohagadh, on the Saturday. (Fastest decision AFAIK.) Around 12 finally decided they were up for it.

So this last Saturday, 14 of us went down to Lohagadh.

I am about to write down incidents that I remember, in random order, instead of narrating the whole adventure trip.

• Had to get up at an ungodly hour - 3:30 am - to get ready and reach dadar station by 5 am.
• The two hours of the train journey were spent in snacking or sleeping.
• Lonavla has a pleasant paced life. Not too early, not too late.
• 9, including the driver, were stuffed in a 6 seater.
• 6, including the driver, were stuffed in a 3 seater (that too, with me and another fellow like me in the rear seat)
• Did not get tired of walking, for a change. (Yay!)
• Never heard an HR person swear like that before. Was it fun!!!
• Nimbu pani never tasted sweeter. (Had it halfway up the hill)
• Ate under a tree, then slept under it - like a nomadic tribe.
• A *beep* monkey snatched my bag of chocolates and tore away at the bars, and gems, and ate them all.
• The same species also grabbed hold of one of the bags and tore it open to get hold of some mangoes and bananas.
• While sitting on a rock, and looking at a sunny sky, I heard some thunder, turned around to see thick black clouds.
• People started packing and running back. Windcheaters were out, cameras and mobile phones in.
• Wind + rains slapped us. Left, right and center. (Some blame the morning abuses to shivaji and his horse by one of the roadies to be the cause of the wrath)
• Laughed, shivered, got scared, and felt happy - all at the same time.
• Missed someone.
• One of the roadies kept harassing all animals he came across after the attack by the monkey - on the bag he was holding. Crabs, dogs, red velvety bugs/insects, earthworms - all had to face his wrath.
• Some of us enjoyed the quiet serene atmosphere, and took it all in.
• Some started behaving in abnormal ways.
• Some couldn’t help not calling Mr President, Mr President.
• Some got real tired and swore and cussed out loud.
• Some became nostalgic about their past treks to the same place.
• The infamous dog followed / showed us the way back down when it was pouring heavily.
• Sat down in a carrier truck
• Saw one of the roadies merrily clickety click away random photos - some of them came out really well.
• Laughed our backsides off when watching the photos on a projected screen - when handpicking photos to be sent to the banglore and mumbai centers. Some photos got really appreciated. Especially the ones just before it started raining.

All in all, was a helluva good one.