Thursday, October 23, 2008

[story] strong beaks

Once upon a time there lived a bird called CK in the city of madurai. She was so intelligent that she could complete all her day to day activities in less than an hour. So she had a free time of almost 552 hrs per day. I know you would ask how it will be 552. Considering that she can do her 24 hrs job in 1 hr, she will have 552 normal bird hrs free per day. All these calculations are made relative to today's time.

She decided that she should do something and avoid wasting time. She always wished to visit different parts of the world. So, packing the required food she started flying across the world. In almost two normal bird months she visited three countries in two different continent. She got to know about many birds from many places. And then she returned home. From her experience over this two months, she has gained a lot of knowledge.

Same once upon a time there lived another bird called LA. He was so lazy when compared to CK that he had only 422 hrs of free time per day. In last two months he did nothing other than eating, sleeping and being idle. He use to be so jealous of CK as she is very active. But somehow he like his way of life and continued. Though CK doesn't like LA, she always believed at his capabilities to handle though situations.

When CK returned after her trip, both LA and CK went for dinner together. CK was very happy to explain all her experience. Then she started the worst things she learned during the trip. She told that the planet will be destroyed soon. LA came to the edge of his seat and listened. She explained various situations across the planet which could lead to destruction. As the discussion got hot, each of them picked a dinosaur with their beaks.

One such reason for destruction of world is that a mighty tailed star would rush through the entire universe in next six months. It would burn any body whose volume is greater than 10000 cubic kilo meter. This includes the planet itself. However if it is less than 1000 cubic kilo meter in volume, that star would not do anything. Someone has to save the lives of the planet. Who will do?

After a long discussion, LA came up with a spontaneous plan to save the planet. It looked pretty decent and there seemed to be no other option. The plan was carve out equal sized blocks from the planet which is less than 10000 cubic kilo meter and throw them into the universe. The speed and the direction of throwing should be more calculative that these blocks get together after the mighty tailed star finishes its job (after thousands of years).

CK and LA did not have any time for the planning and the design phase. They decided to do it themself, as it will be difficult to explain the situation and the plan to other birds. Also no one would belive, like today. CK and LA decided to start of from madurai itself. LA started off. He opened his beak wide. Having madurai as the center of his beak, he carved out a big block out of the planet. He then threw it into the universe. He turned and smiled at CK with pride. CK moved her beak left and right and turned quickly.

OK. Now CK continued the same job towards south of madurai and LA doing his job north. They carved out all the pieces from the planet and threw them into the space. As CK threw the last block, both of them were free floating on the universe without any gravitational pull. Both of them looked at each other and smiled. They had a big satisfaction of saving all the lives of the planet. They know that one day all the pieces would join together and the life would sustain in the planet.

They were very tired. They dint even have a dinosaur to eat. As they were thinking if they have done the right job, the mighty tailed star came and burnt them :(
5000 years later, the Earth got created.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

skandagiri

Hi.. this post is about my second trip to skandagiri. Blog on my first trip is here


18th Oct, 2008 mid night (aka early morning) 02.30 hrs I got up as per the plan. This plan has been postponing for almost two years in our team. Kiran would be happy to see this happening atlast:) Nine people decided to start off early in the morning. Saji and SMS brought their cars and picked everyone.



We all met near Hebal flyover at 4am. Few ppl had some energy drink then and we rushed through the hydrabad highway. Suddenly SMS car got some coolant problem and we had to go slow for the rest of the journey. We took a left turn at chikballapur to reach the base of skandagiri aka kalavarahalli betta. There was enough parking space and we could see lot of vehicles already there. Most of them do night trekking and be at the top of the hill to see the sunrise and the floating clouds below them. Yes we could see lot of clouds below the top of the hill. We wish we were at the top at that time. Its 6.00am.

We started the walk and all our cameras started clicking. Gokul captured some interesting videos throughout the trip. The climate was excellent quiet different from my first trip:) This made us relax while walking and also induced lot of rest on the way. Narayanan asusual was the talk of the group, but this time he could take some revenge on Gokul. Veena and Senthil could not walk slow and they were ahead of us all the way, sometimes narayanan joining them.

Deepa (sorry sakshi) brought bf (breakfast) for all. Eating the aalu parota and snacks we walked slowly throughout the trek. SMS was searching for his water bottle throughout the trip though we provided him enough water. It was fun all the way with music playing in any one of our cell phones. Sakshi would start dancing whenever she sees the deep valley by the side. Sapna was the one who could pull sakshi and saji whenever they stopped for a music.



We all reached the hilltop by around 11am. Relaxing over there with noone else around was amazing. As the cellphones started some wonderful songs, we started dancing. It was fun & we ate good amount of snacks, feeding some to the doggy over there. Coming down was bit faster but still we maintained the relaxations all the way.

As we started back from chikballapur, we stopped by a highway dhaba to have our lunch. It was almost 3pm now. Though we were very hungry we could not eat much, thanks to the excellent food. After reaching hebbal flyover, it was again the bangalore traffic and heavy noise around. We dispersed in respective cars to reach back home.

photos are at http://picasaweb.google.com/vijayakumar.balasubramanian/Skandagiri1