ps: I just love macro photography

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?

Where do I start!!! (I will skip all the small ones ) Quit my job(first ever job so yeah it was the first time I did that) and started my very own startup with my friends , Bungee jumped! , Read a couple of books I have been waiting for years to read and Wrote something important to me

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Yep I did and will do again

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope but think a few friends might become mommies next year

4. Did anyone close to you die?
-

5. What countries did you visit?
nope but hope to this year

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Lot more traveling(It died down towards the end of 2007), maybe being a bit more social(relationships?), lot more sports

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory?
28th June 23:45 pm(give or take 2 minutes)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Drone keeping in mind my future… The Sculptor’s Statue keeping in mind my past

9. What was your biggest failure?
Failure… hmmm I believe in “What does not kill you only makes you stronger…” so cant term anything a ‘failure’ but yes have had a few tough lessons

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
The regular cold, throat infection and viral fever

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My Bike and my Laptop!!!! There is one more planned purchase before Jan 1st (will talk about that later)

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Indian Cricket team in the T20 World Cup!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Nope, nothing to fit this category

14. Where did most of your money go?
Bike and Laptop

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Start of the F1 championship (bit of a melodrama this year) Waiting for my Bike and laptop to be delivered and most definitely the Final of the T20 world championships!

16. What song/album will always remind you of 2007?
Saawariya… The closest thing to a good musical

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. Happier or sadder?
Sadder actually but I know its just the calm before the storm.

ii. Thinner or fatter?
The same… still underweight

iii. Richer or poorer?
Probably poorer Well I did buy a couple of large gifts for myself

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
More reading and writing… My personal journal was very neglected this year and I wrote just one story this year and wrote 2 plays(short ones)

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Obsessing over irrelevant incidents… Its something I just need to get out of my system

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it at Work… But I will be making up for it big time in a few months time

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Well I believed I did… am too confused to be sure Fall out of love yep once

22. How many one night stands in this last year?
None

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Psych, totally am in love with the lightness of the show I continued watching all my favorite shows from previous years though.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
lol nope… become fonder of a few ppl though

25. What was the best book you read?
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That I can listen to Kishore Kumar and Mohd. Rafi all day and everyday!!!

27. What did you want and get?
Opportunities

28. What did you want and not get?
A Surprise. Its been a long time since someone did something/bought something for me that truly surprised me.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Ooh tough one… Johnny Gaddaar & Rocky Balboa

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
23 and I ran around all day!

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A cup of coffee with *****

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Lol, well it was ‘Just Haas’

33. What kept you sane?
Theater and writing

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you like the most?
SRK I think, was very impressed with the way he handled things around him. Vijay Mallya too(for Force India ofcourse)

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Karnataka’s politics… thought it was like a bad play

36. Who did you miss?
All my friends that decided to live on the other side of the globe

37. Who was the best new person you met?
If you have read *every* post I made in the last month or so… then you already know

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
“Most often than not we have no idea what we actually want and what is good for us”

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Here we are - we’ve just begun
And after all this time - our time has come
Ya here we are - still goin’ strong
Right here in the place where we belong

- Here I Am by Bryan Adams

Oh in case you did not know or haven’t figured it out yet… I am a dog person

The past few days have been extremely cold in Bangalore, temp has dropped to the lowest in decades and well things are getting a bit chilly… We have this huge basement where we and our tenants park their cars… more often than not someone is either parking a vehicle in there or removing one, so the gates are normally just left open.

A couple of days ago a dog decided to get into the basement, the dog was not violent and hardly even barked. It kept going in and out so we thought it was trying to hide from other dogs. Only a day later we realized that the dog was a mom and was keeping her hurt pup inside!

Now this pup had a hurt leg and was totally weak. We were at a predicament at this point. I am of the opinion that we must not influence too much on the natural happening of things. This dog might have been weak but it had its mom and she would give it all the knowledge to help it survive its environment. Another part of me saw this weak little thing and wanted to help it.

Fortunately my parents took the decision for me… While I was at work and basically seeing the pup only when I came back home, my parents started keeping food for the dogs. But things weren’t going to just end there…

The day before yesterday the mom just took off. I think she realized that there was someone else to take care of her child. The pup squealed for the mom all thru the day and hardly had anything we gave it to eat. The sounds totally depressed me and I just had no idea what to do.

But as of yesterday the pup was much quieter and even ate a bit. Only when I saw it reacting to my mom did I realize that it really liked my mom. It just gets so thrilled to see my mom that it sprints across the room on its 3 legs and does what ever my mom tells it. I was shocked seeing this coz the pup has known my mom only for like 2-3 days! And my mom is more surprised that the pup is so smart

My dad thinks that the mom will be back in a couple of days and will take the pup out. I for some reason am not that optimistic but then again i hardly know anything about how dogs raise their pups…

Well the experience has been good for my parents now my parents are not that quick turning me down at the suggestion of having a pet

Ps: Any suggestions on what to do to help out the pup will be graciously accepted (adoption unfortunately might be out of the question )

Thanks to all the amazing people that made my day Thanks for all the hugs and wishes guys… Its alright for the rest if you forgot or did not want to wish me(i know someone is there out there ). I just want to tell all you wonderful people that its your company that makes everyday worth living and loving

My birthday happens to fall at a very convenient time… Almost bang on the middle of the year Its like a new year all over again but it gives me the perfect place to check and see what I have done/wanted to do this year… I have finished a lot that I wanted from this year already and done a lot I did not expect myself to do, of course there is still a whole bunch of stuff pending well have 6 more months for them

If you have known me for a while or have been reading this journal(for a while too ) you would know that I have this awesome fascination towards prime numbers I was thinking about all the important events in my life so far and realized that I could trace every event’s origin back to when I was 19… Interestingly that was the last prime birthday I had before the current one(I am 23 btw) So no wonder I am feeling extremely lucky about this year I have a whole bunch of plans about revamping my outlook and to try new things… Lets see how well they pan out

Thanks again guys… So here is to another trip around the sun

I did have loads of fun… especially when I walked up to ppl grabbing dinner and telling em “Dont be shy eat as if its your 25th Marriage Anniversary” was even more fun to tell to the bachelors…
Also when I went around telling my aunts “You will have to wait another 25 years for a treat like this”

What happened in 2006 to Haas? Well lets see:

First Time Things:
Flew around a bit,
Walked In the Clouds,
Learnt a bit of Theater Acting and Performed on stage,
Bought 2 cars (One extra large and one small but my favorite one of the two),
Trekked to YedaKumeri,
Created a F1 site(with friends),
Got Stood up,
Watched 2 of the best TV shows I have ever seen(Lost and Prison Break),
Learnt Yoga(just basics) and
Wrote 2 plays

Second Time Things:
Attended the Mahamastakabisheka,
Wrote a Short Story and a Super short one

Multiple Time Things: Watched many plays and Movies

Most Important event of the year… Well my Sis got married

Well it was a busy year alright

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Yesterday was Rakshabandhan… Evening was busy with all my sweet sis’s dropping in to tie the Rakhi coupled with me driving my sis to my cousin’s place. Its a rare thing that we cousins meet mid week… mostly its on some rare weekend or some family function but the day of Rakshabandhan is special, we always meet on that day.

Anyway by night my right wrist was half covered and the smile on my face end to end

Let me start on Friday when I took a leave from office as my cousin was getting engaged…

Briefly: Went to HSR Club for my Cousins engagement… A tractor’s tyre exploded as it was going past my parked Santro, the impact of the explosion threw up stones that destroyed(yes, destroyed) the rear glass of my car(pics after the link). The impact also resulted in my cousin’s car losing 3 of its windows.

Saturday Morning… After almost 2 years I got back to some Soccer. Frankly when you are playing Soccer its important that you are playing, the scoreline does not matter much(unless you score or win :P More importantly I fell… nope no body tripped me I basically just slipped and hurt my left side pretty bad. Added to that every other muscle in my body has started hurting as well… Damn I love Soccer

Sat Noon… Had planned to catch a movie with Theju. He called me up to ask if I was coming, I said I was and he told me to be there at 1:00 pm. Problem: I thought there was PVR when it was actually Uma theater . I’m in Forum Mall and realize its too late to drive across town so I go to LandMark and pick up a few books. Since I was there I checked if my sis wanted me to get her some tickets(she keeps asking me if I can book for her) I get to the counter and find out that tickets are not available and turn to leave and bump into my friend Pragna. He was also there to book tickets and since it was around lunch time we decide to grab lunch in Transit. We hv just ordered our lunch and are waiting for it to be ready and I see Arpit (another close pal) a few feet away from me. Turns out he had been there to catch “Lady in the Water”. I spend some time with them after lunch and head home trying to beat the rain and catch Qualification for the F1 race.

Sunday involved me meeting my friends and more importantly meeting my friend who is leaving… Then evening was basically watching the race. Yeah my sunday was a bit better than boring

Pics of the Impact:

I had been to an Islamic wedding in the afternoon. This was the first time I saw one… I love weddings, they have the amazing ability to make people happy and I simply love seeing so many people so well dressed and smiling away to glory The food was really good and the host(who was my dad’s collegue) was very kind to us… he never left our side. Possibly the best hospitality I hv ever recieved at a wedding.

I have been thinking (about life and stuff) a lot lately. Whenever I get to this point I know that I am going to realize or deduce something that will be my top priority for a long time. Anyway if you see me becoming quiet and staring at objects for long durations of time… dont panic its me going on one of my out of control thought processes

Last weekend I had been to my uncle’s place and after lunch he proudly took me to his library(he called it that ). Thre were around 40 books and I picked up a few(I had never heard of before) and went through the back cover to see what they were about. My uncle was kind enough to explain to me what some of the books were about.

After a while he told me his prized collection was that of the “Rich Dad Poor Dad” series and that he had bought the whole collection. He even showed me the prize tag which hung at around $11 a piece. I then asked the most common question any regular reader(I know) would ask, “Why, didnt you get this in roadside(pirated) shop?”. His answer made me think…

He said “I do buy from the road side shops but if I plan to use the ideas in a book, then I go ahead and buy the original copy as a thanks to guy who wrote it.” I actually agree with him at the point but how would you know before reading a book that it would help you? I actually look at the price of a book in a bookshop before deciding if I should go ahead and purchase it. If I find the book priced too high I dont feel bad picking up the lower priced unofficial copy.

For eg. I bought the book iCon last week. It was priced at Rs. 1200/- when it was launched and that was coz it was the US edition. I bought the Indian(non-pirated) edition for Rs. 395/-. The pirated one would have been anywhere between 50-100 bucks(which is a clear bargain).

I hv bought a lot of books lately and there is an inclination to go for pirated books, the reason being that I hardly ever read a book more than once. The book then becomes a one time investment and knowing that I would rather buy it a lower price and pick up more books instead of spending so much on one.

I noticed an intresting pattern in the books I have at home. Most of the books I truly loved I had actually paid full price and bought it at a decent bookshop. Maybe I hv a phycological drive to love books I hv paid more for or just that I dont think twice about the price when I think I will like reading the book.

Whatever the case I guess I wont be stopping my habit of picking up books without thinking twice about it being pirated or not.

Today was dad’s birthday and sis was back early from work with the cake and all thats required to make a small party. She had not informed about this(considering we hv been doing it every year now I should hv known better ). Totally reminded me of last year.

That was my 3rd cake today after 2 in the office… One for Sidharth and Vidya and another, thanks to Sid’s Mom and Dad .

I just came to know that an old friend has moved back to bangalore and that made me so happy . I cant wait to meet her again.

Btw, Just watching the inagural match of the World Cup. Im supporting England and Germany but would bet my money on Brazil to win it.

Latest Score: Germany 2-1 Costa Rica. The 3 goals all during the first 17 mins… man this is crazy

PS: Happy Birthday to Sidharth and Vidya(tmrw)

UPDATE: Germany wins 4-2 over Costa Rica, Yaay! That Frings goal was simply amazing… contender for goal of the tournament (already! yep already)

The moment I knew that I will probably never forget Darjeeling was when I opened the curtians of my hotel room. The scene that greeted me is to the right.

The journey from Gangtok to Darjeeling was all but familiar… we were retracing our steps back to Baghdogra and stopped at Rangpo. This little town is right after the Sikkim border and we stopped there grab our lunch… For the first time in the trip we found a place which sold South Indian dishes. The best part was not the idly/dosa it was the Rasmalai. The sweet was given in matkas and was the best I had ever tasted (Btw this has been my favourite sweet ever since I can remember).

My only regret from this trip is that I did not hv enough of Bengali sweets

The ride up the mountains was beautifully scenic(as usual ). We stopped along the way again to allow our car to be washed. At the place we bought some plums which were delicious… I mean they just melted in your mouth(my mouth waters just thinking of it). The fruits and veggies in this part look so healthy and delicious that you just want to bite into them

As we entered Darjeeling a huge traffic jam greeted us. It seem there was a conflict earlier in the day between a policeman and a taxi driver and it resulted in manhandling and the drivers decided to strike. It took us 2hrs to cover a distance that would normally take like 2 mins. We were dropped off at the raliway station and told to use porters to transfer our luggage. These guys hv amazing strength and carried half our luggage supported by their forehead.

The bad news did not stop there… The strike meant that the vans needed to transport water to the hotels and homes did also not ply… So there we were in Darjeeling the place we wanted to be and hating every moment of it. Thats when I went to my room and opened the screen I knew it was clearly worth all the trouble

The strike made us chage our plans, we decided to interchange the itenary for the next two days as one of the days we needed to leave at 3:30 am this would be difficult to negotiate with all the drivers off on strike . So the next day we headed off to a full day Mirik Lake excursion.

The lake was beautiful beyond words… It was amazing that even though there were mountains around we could hardly see them from the tree cover. The flowers were amazing not to mention animals were in galore.

On the way back we stopped at a market… The unique thing about the market was that it was well… in Nepal . So I for the first time crossed over the Indian border(Another first I did this trip) I always remember that ad on tv whose tag line is “When was the last time you did something for the first time”

This market was amazing… we had everything from blankets(local stuff) to digicams and other electronic stuff. We were totally unprepared for this sort of a market and having a 1 hr deadline to get back(our driver always seemed to be in a hurry :P we could not get much shopping done. My mom and aunt were in literal paradise and were enjoying every moment of the bargaining and stuff. An idea of how cheap stuff there were I overheard one man tell to another that an Ipod was available for Rs 5k… not sure which sort of model but I think it was one of the mid range ones.

On the way back from the market to our hotel we had to stop again coz my uncle’s driver had not shownup. I took the nice chance to snap up a few more pics

The next day was the one I was looking ahead to for the entire trip We were supposed to leave at 3:30 in the morn and I was ready by 2:45 am… A trick Im not sure how i did . The early morning rise was to catch the sunrise on Tiger Hill and to watch the sun bathe Mt Kanchenganga… ofcourse I was excited

By the time we reached the top of the hill there were people all over the place. I had almost given up hope as the sky was almost blue and that usually means that the Sun is over the horizon. What I very soon realized was that here there are 2 horizons unlike most places… the earth and the clouds… The sun has to be over the clouds(covering the hills) to hv fully risen. We had enough time

We had to all purchase a ticket to enter a building which allowed us to get elevation to view the event. When we reached there the room was already crowded but we managed to get a place from where we could eazily see out the window.

The light was slowly but steadily getting better and all of a sudden a guy to my left screamed and started shouting saying he saw it… he saw it. I was like wtf and there was chaos everywhere… ppl did not want to miss it and the sun was still not clear. I realized that this must be the guys first ever viewing of a sunrise and was laughing on the inside… by now ppl knew it was a false alarm and sat down.

A few mins later the sun did come out from the cover of the clouds… They say pictures speak a thousand words so here they are…

The above pic shows how many people had gathered there… And that was just the ground level.

We then headed for the Ghoom Monastery. For some reason the most wonderful experiences in this trip were the monasteries. I some how loved being inside one and always someone had to pull me out(very different than getting thrown out )

Next in queue was the Batasia loop… a War memorial created to remember the valiant troops that gave their lives for our great country. The memorial is in the form of a soldier standing in front of an obelisk. The mountains in the background just made it perfectly pictersque.

After breakfast we headed to the Padmaja Zoological Garden. I dont actually like zoos that much(believe that animals must roam freely and must not be caged) But this place also had the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and a Mountaineering Museum. I was not allowed to take pictures inside but could take a few pictures of the resting place of Tenzing Norgay(One of the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953)

As we stepped out we decided to drink a cup of tea and stopped at a chay-shop. There i saw this amazingly cute pup Man was he brave not at all scared when I picked him up (If I feel that any animal is scared when I pick it up I usually keep him down and step back so as to stop scaring the poor animal) I spent a few mins petting him and playing with him. He even was kind enough to pose for a few snaps

During our sight seeing we passed by a rock named after Tenzing Norgay. This rock is used to train amatuers mountaineering.

And the place Baichung Butia got his training before he became captain of India.

The next day we moved to the final destination of our vacation Kalimpong. The mist in Darjeeling the day we left was the highest in the entire trip.

This place is not in much elevation compared to either Gangtok or Darjeeling but this was the rest phase of our trip. What this meant was that we had a few hours of sight seeing and had 2 days for ourselves to relax .

We visited the Cactus garden, a beautiful assortment of cacti…

The last pic in the above set was a cactus whose thorns did not hurt… they actually felt like cotton . We then went to the Zang Dhok Palri Phodong monastery… Again ppl had to pull me out I was particularly interested in the lamps which had an intresting form of oil keeping it running(I think now that it is just ordinary oil but became so coz of the cold ) And took some pictures of the Stupas which I thought served as tombs of temple masters.

We stopped again at a garden which was covered in the mist and cleansed by the morning dew. I got some truly beautiful pictures of the dew drops on the leaves and one prized scalp of a spider web

We also went to a garden higher in the mountains but hardly anything was visible over the cloud cover and the mist…

Then it was time to head back… The flights were non terbulant and I was partially exhausted by the time I reached home but I was so happy with the trip that I hardly cared.

Its wonderful when I look back and wonder how those 8 days just flew by… I guess it will be another year before my next vacation… I think the plan is Singapore but I want to see more of India, Let me see if I can convince them to do Rajasthan and its beauty next year (Deep down I wanna scuba dive… Well that can be arranged in a trip over the weekend so guess that will be sooner that later )

Some more random pictures from the trip:

These were from my cell cam:

Veggies anyone:

Earth and the Sky:

Read the first part of this trip: A Walk In The Clouds… My Sikkim Trip

This quote from my cousin near Tsango lake is a spectacular way to explain what we felt through out the trip. She said(to her mom) “Ma, I thought I would never touch the clouds but I even did that today…”

Words escape me as I try to sum up those feeling in words but one things for sure… This trip has been the most exciting 8 days of my life and I hv photos to prove it

Our journey started early Sunday(22nd May) morning… we had a morning flight to Kolkota and another flight a few hours later to Baghdogra. Its amazing how busy an airport is without regard to time… As we got through the tedious process(its no longer exciting considering I travelled in planes for the first time last year) of getting our luggage tagged and then checking in one thing was clear to me Kingfisher airhostess are really distracting . With all due respect to all the other airlines and all the pretty people on them… Vijay Mallya is great at what he does

Entrance to Sikkim.

Baghdogra Airport is in a very remote location very close to Sikkim. Next was a 4hr taxi ride to Gangtok. Most of this journey was along river Teesta… The river flowing in the vallies and crevasses of the great Himalayas is truly a sight for sore eyes.

A few hours later we were at our destination Gangtok, the Capital of the state of Sikkim. We reached around 6 pm and we thought we had enough time to freshen up and go to the local bazaar but interestingly things happen much earlier in these parts. The sun is up by 5 am (compared to the 6 am rise in Bangalore) and in the evening most of the shops are shut by 8 - 8:30 pm(a fete which is unthinkable in Bangalore). I took the time to get a few snaps of the hills from my window.

The next day we spent mostly sight seeing. This was the day we needed to get used to the chill of the hills and few places we visited helped us to warm up to the occasion . The visit to Rumtek Monastery was a experience I will probably never forget. The monastery is placed on top of a mountain and the walk from the gate to the Monastery is very tiring(considering our lifestyle in Bangalore we hardly get any exercise :P. Once we entered the Monastery this aura of calmness just runs us down… Its amazing how relaxed you feel inside one of those places maybe its how they build them or maybe its just that I encountered peace and quiet after such a long time

The monk above can be best described as A “Monk who never had a Ferrari to sell” The man was very kind and soft spoken. He was kind enough to let me take his picture and the calmness in his expression says it all .

These flowers(below) at the Monastery were very intresting… The plant had flowers blossoming in different colors what is even more intresting is that the colors are from different ends of the spectrum . There was also a group of ppl building what I initially thought was one giant rocket I guess it was a long pole(similar to Dwaja Stumba’s we have in front of our temples)

We then visited a flower show… I was initially of the opinion that this should only take a few mins but the variety flowers we saw in the show was simply mind boggling. The time we had chosen for our trip was perfect as most flowers were blooming with all their glory This was a special treat for my mom(she simply adores flowers )

This flower reminded me of this entry in my friend’s journal

In the evening we walked through MG Marg, A street in which you could find all the shopping you will need . This shop literally stood out from the rest. Its width was around twice my cubicle’s and the length was like 40-60 ft. Its intresting how different buildings are in these regions compared to home.

The next day we headed to lake Tsango. The lake is at an amazing height of 12400 ft above sea level. The drive to the lake saw us going though Indian Army camps… The lake is very close to the Chinese border and the whole area is covered by the military. We stopped at the Kyanglosla falls… A brilliant falls at such a height and the water was crystal clear, I doubt the water from our water filters are this pure.

We then went past lake Tsango to go to a memorial a few kms ahead. Our driver informed us that this memorial was of a soldier that had drowned and that they consider the place very holy. Once we reached the place… holy or not this place was beautiful. The clouds were all over us and it just kept drizzling. When you are inside a cloud its feezing, It was so cold I could actually feel the muscles in my face as the drops hit it. The air had a weighted feel to it and we could not see beyond a few feet ahead of us. After a while the clouds cleared and I took the opportunity to click a few pictures of the place.

The above picture is the only snow we saw in the trip. Since the time was practically the end of summer most of the snow was gone. I was not very disappointed considering last year I had spent a whole day in a snow field throwing snow balls at every one (That was the first time I had encountered snow ever )

Lake Tsango is considered to be very holy lake. The lake is fed by the melting snow and it is huge(considering where it is). There were yak rides around the lake but I decided to skip that. Yaks are one of the coolest animals I hv ever seen(pun not intended) they are huge almost twice or thrice the size of cows and as furry as furry can get. Considering their huge size and large horns they are very timid and docile. The man that owned the yak told us that he had spent Rs. 17K getting one and was charging us 10 bucks per picture of the animal.

The last evening in Gangtok was spent at the Ropeway. The huge structure is a good way to get a bird’s eye view of the beautiful city.

Considering this post has already become so long I shall post about the events in Darjeeling and Kalimpong in my next post

Till then here are some random pics from the visit to Gangtok:

I will be visiting Ganagtok, Darjeeling and a few tourist spots along the way. Im really excited about viewing the “Sunrise over Mt. Kanchenganga” and visiting a Monstary in the mountains.

Last year I had been to Delhi, Shimla, Kulu-Manali and Agra. Those few days were truly amazing and I just know this is going to be as good… Last time I had no digital cam to go nuts taking pics but this time im armed .

PS: I need tips on managing the data. I will not be carrying the laptop so am considering burning the pics onto cds (I think 512mb card will not be enough ).