I love my bike

What's with the power cut these days anyway. One thing good about it is that it gets me into a mood for blogging.

So i was on my way back from work for lunch on my blue Yamaha R15 and there's this school bus ahead of me which I didn't notice at first. But then when I looked at it, the kids in the back seat were pressing their heads against the rear glass and ogling at the bike. I generally get conscious when people in a vehicle ahead of me stare back at me. But this time the feeling was very different.

Ever since I purchased the bike, I've seen people around going "Woah look its an R15" etc. There is no doubt that it is one of the best looking mid range bikes available. This time, the kids in the bus were trying to say something to me. One particular kid puts his head out of the window and shouts out "SUPER". I nod my head in appreciation and zoom past the bus and head home. Man... I love my bike...

Just Sayin...

I ordered pizza from the office to be delivered home
There was nobody at home I was guessing but thought i'd make it before the delivery guy
On my way back in the crowded traffic I saw a pizza delivery guy pass by in his scooter in the other direction and got the smell of pizza from a distance.
Then I wonder could this be the delivery guy who returned from my place without delivering coz nobody was at home?
Then I reach home to realize that the pizza guy did go back coz nobody opened the door.
So the pizza smell actually traveled a long distance through the thick or am I just having a pizza-sense??? I'm just sayin....

Kentuky Fried or Not Kentuky Fried?

Every time I get an opportunity to taste some of the delicious chicken from KFC, I always tend to compare my current experience with my previous ones. KFC is without a doubt some of the best chicken you could ever taste in your life. Forget all those bull crap mails that try to demotivate people from eating KFC because they claim these birds are actually not real chicken but some type of a hybrid. I enjoy KFC for one reason and one reason alone- It tastes so FRIKKIN DELICIOUS!!!

If you have tasted KFC only in India and you loved it, I would suggest, the next time you have somebody coming down from the Gulf, to ask them to get something from there. My pics are the Matafee and the Zinger. I have tasted KFC in 3 places in India- Bangalore, Mumbai and Mangalore and from my experience, the chicken smells and tastes good... but not great. There is a HUGE difference in taste from what I've tasted in the Gulf. The chicken you get to taste there is so juicy, its addictive. The taste lingers in your mouth for hours after you have a bite. The aroma that the sandwich releases into the air is just mesmerizing and I can guarantee you it will leave you begging for more...

Apart from that, there are a lot more interesting sandwiches on the menu. I have tasted differences in several food joints that are present here and abroad but I have never tasted something with such a huge difference in taste as that of KFC. I would assume that some of the herbs are missing from the original recipe. The KFC in Mangalore had opened up only a few days back and I was hoping that I would find some improvement in the taste but to no avail.

By writing this blog entry, I have taken off something that was I was waiting to get off my chest since long. I do not wish to discourage anybody from loving KFC for what it is. But I would certainly like to encourage you to get the true taste of KFC so that you get to taste the world's best chicken the way it is meant to be tasted...

Could it be real this time?

There was just one thing left to do that night. Had to head over to my colleague's area and give him a token generator... Work related stuff... Anyway, I head there around 9:45 pm.

The road to his place takes a diversion from the main road to a lonely road. I travelled about a kilometer further and could descry him from a distance. I pulled over next to him. It was dark. There was a partially built building just adjacent to where I had pulled over. Only thing that lit up the area was a small street lamp in the distance. I handed over the device that he wanted and then we began talking work related stuff. I was leaning over my car. Suddenly I could feel a presence tugging on my legs. I looked down and I did not see anything. I continued chatting with him. After a while I could feel the tug again. But not wanting to look awkward, I avoided looking at it again.

We spoke for a while and then it was time for me to head back. It was 10 pm. My colleague took my leave and I opened the door of my car. I could feel something over my right arm. I could not see anything on my arm. The feeling was similar to a long hair falling over the arm or even a spider web. Anyway, I started my engines and drove forward. I could feel the presence on my other arm now. I tried grasping it and tried to throw it away assuming it was a hair. The feeling was gone for the moment. I was almost back to the main road before which I encountered a road bump. I could see a dead dog which was bleeding lying on the road which was weird because I was certain it wasn't there the first time I crossed that area and I did not hear any whining or crying the whole while I was in conversation. I drove past it, went a little forward, stopped my car, lowered my windshield to have a second look at it. It was gone, and so was the blood...

Fire in the kitchen!

This happened just moments back. I was showing off to my mom what a great cook I've become over the time she was out of town. Deep fried some french fries (Al Kabeer) which looked really bad after it was ready. Somehow it wasn't as good as the McCain french fries I used to fry. Utterly disappointed with that, I left the fries on a piece of paper for the oil to dry out a little. Unfortunately the stove was not turned off properly. Unaware of this, my sis, my mom and me went outside to have a chat. After a while my mom could hear some crackling noise. Thanks to her suspicion, she went to the kitchen to check out what the noise was and in no time I heard her scream out calling my name...

I knew something must be seriously wrong, so I sprinted to the kitchen to see the entire room blacked out and blazing flame on the stove lighting up the smoke filled air. The lights were on, yet it seemed like there was only light from the fire that lit the room up. We all panicked! The exhaust above the stove had melted. The frying pan was on fire. There was still a lot of oil remaining. We opened up the back door and the kitchen windows to let some of the smoke out. We lifted the pan using a tool and kept it on the floor. Tried covering it up with a carpet but it did not help, in fact it just ruined the carpet. With no other option left, we just waited for the fire to die out.

The tiles around the stove had blackened out but they could be wiped clean. Some switches above the stove stopped working. The exhaust light had melted down and the vessels involved in the incident were rendered unusable. We just waited for the smoke to evacuate and we stepped out for some fresh air after all the smoke we breathed in which left resides all over our faces and clothes. If it wasn't for my mom's suspicion, who knows what would have happened this day....

Could it be???

It was a regular weekend at home. After I get back from work on an average day, I do my usual rounds of bath and freshening up, have dinner and then start watching a movie or TV series till like 1 am or so... This was the routine. This particular time, my granny and my sis were staying at home. Our rooms(mine and my sister's are on the upper floor opposing each other and the master bedroom is in the lower floor.

I have this habit of eating a lot at night. Especially after 11 pm. I even prepare noodles for myself at night but most of the time its just popcorn and fruit. My sister sleeps along with my granny in the master bedroom because she is afraid of sleeping alone at night. I on the other hand am not afraid of sleeping alone. In fact I prefer it. They go to sleep usually around 11pm and switch off all the lights. Now in order to go down, I turn on a corridor light near my room and a two way switch for the chandelier in the center. That provides enough light to climb down two fights of stairs till the kitchen.

This one night, when it was all silent outside, and it was around 12:15 am , I headed downstairs without turning on the chandelier. So i had a little tough time finding my way down. I turned on the kitchen light and I prepared microwaved popcorn for myself and then poured coke into a glass and headed back up. Before I began climbing up the first flight of stairs, when I turned right, I could see an eerie shadow in the living room. It did not seem to move. It was all too dark. The only light that was lighting up the living room was the faint moonlight. The strange thing was the shadow took the shape of a girl. What would my sister be doing in the living room at this hour of the night? I walked up to the living room and called the name of my sister but the shadow did not respond. I walked even closer and then I realized that my sister did not have hair as long as the shadow did.

I do not believe in ghosts or ghouls so I had no fear in approaching the light switch in the living room and switching it on. The shadow disappeared. It was late at night and I thought I was just seeing things. I turned away, switched off the light and headed toward the staircase. I turned on the chandelier this time using the second switch at the beginning of the staircase. It walked upwards and I took the turn and headed towards the second flight of stairs. As I climbed up, the chandelier behind me cast my shadow on the way. Was I just hazy or could I really see two shadows being cast? I turned around and there was nothing there. I turned back and now I see only one shadow! I switch off the chandelier and sprint to my room almost dropping the glass of coke...

Sita Falls Trip: An unforgettable life threatening experience

This happened somewhere towards the end of monsoon season, in the year 2008. I was in the 6th semester. We had decided to go for our class trip to Sita falls which was approximately a 3 hour journey from our college. Now being the end of the monsoon season, there were chances of finding all sorts of slimy creatures around.

Our college is situated in a forest by the way. Far far away from the city. The waterfalls we were going to is situated deep in the forest. I think there were around 25 of us in total and a good mix of boys and girls. Our travel bus arrived in time in the morning and we headed out to the spot at our planned time.

The journey to the falls was quite a memorable one. We had lots of fun in the bus. Everyone was cheerful, energetic and above all excited to explore the great falls.
This was not our first class trip to a waterfall. We had been to Hanuman Gundi earlier to this and it was a wonderful trip. This waterfall was known to be more spectacular than the previous one. Anyways, as we continued to our destination, we played a few games to pass our time in the bus. Games like Antakshari, Dumb charades, truth and dare, etc. We also had a lovely dance performance by Siddharth from our class. I particularly remember this one because we had recorded a video of the entire performance. The dude has really got some dancing skills.

As we neared our destination at around 11 am, the bus had to stop as there was a very narrow bridge which could not carry the weight. We got down and started walking forward.

The surroundings looked beautiful. There was no sign of the waterfall. The ground on which we walked was dry. The sky had broken clouds and far off in the distance we could see tall mountains covered with trees. We formed smaller groups as we walked towards the falls. We were informed that there is a five kilometer walk to the falls so we were prepared. We were also informed that there could be leeches around as it is damp in some areas. The areas we walked around were mostly dry and there were some creeks too. This was the only flowing water visible to us at that time. I carried my video camera and covered a few areas on tape as we walked. We knew it was a long walk ahead.

There were some PJ's cracked along the way and laughter and talks about previous experiences. It was a merry walk until suddenly my friend stops walking and looks down at his foot. There it was, adhered to his toe, like a thick black thread coming out of the toe, a leech sucking his blood. He did not seem to panic much as he has come across leeches in his life. But I had not. This was the first time i ever saw one and the thought of it sucking blood out of his leg gave me goosebumps. Well what do you know.. We have come well prepared. Two packets of salt. My friend takes a pinch of salt and sprinkles it on the leech, it twirls into a spiral and immediately lets go of the grasp. This instills fear into many of my comrades. Especially the girls. I am pretty sure some of them might have thought of discontinuing the journey at this point itself. But we had already covered about half a kilometer so we pushed on.

The path we walked on started getting more moist as we walked along. It was around 12 pm. We could notice a stream of water falling from a nearing mountain. We were assuming that was the falls even though the actual falls was supposed to be much bigger than that. The forest was getting more dense. We could see more green around us and more streams of water flowing at ground level. There were more clouds forming at this time and it covered the sun most of the time. We advised ourselves to watch the ground we walked on to avoid leech bites. We could see leeches crawling across the ground. They move on the ground like play springs. It was very creepy. As we walked further the number of leeches we could see increased. Eventually more of us were being bitten one at a time. Towards the end I was the one who was not bitten by a single leech and I was like "I am going to survive without being bitten today at all". Boy how I wish I could be at least close to that statement.

Yes, I too was eventually bitten by a leech. We were very unscrupulous with the packets of salt. The leech bites were happening so often and so quickly that we did not bother taking pinches of salt. Many a times, we just wasted the salt by pouring it on the feet to clear off the leeches. Salt was getting scanty and all were getting worried. We were just hoping we would make it to the falls soon and relax there for a while.

We proceeded further and leech bites were inevitable. The forest was very dense now. Looked around for the waterfall but it was nowhere in sight. The girls' shrieks and shrills were increasing constantly. We pressed on ahead. Many of us really did not want to proceed foreseeing more critters ahead. Many of the girls called out and suggested that we head back but the majority wanted to proceed.

We are deep within the forest now. Leeches everywhere. We could see them crawl toward us. The fear that we once had of leeches was dieing away. We could not help it. There was no way we could avoid them. Leeches EVERYWHERE. We could not keep our foot down at one spot for more than a second. Our eyes scanning each area on the ground and a span of 1 foot around it for leeches before placing our foot down. We had to constantly get them off our feet. They don't come off easy. We were running out of salt because of the unscrupulous usage. We had to rely on just pinching them off, risking more amounts of blood loss. Blood just poured out from the bite spots after pulling them off.

We reached a point which was almost like a dead end and the only way forward was to jump onto a rock which had water flowing on all sides of it and on top of that rock were a large number of leeches just waiting to quench their thirst.
Enough was enough. This had gone far enough. Half the group decided to head back. We did not want to risk so much just to see a waterfall. But some of them still did not want to give up. I was more concerned about the others who were really frightened and really wanted to get back. Our group splits in two here.

We try to trace our way back. Our half of the group mainly consisted of girls and only around five guys. We had to again pace very quickly. We tried following the route back but then at one point we realized that we had reached an area which we had never seen before. We were LOST.

Lost in a dense forest. No idea where to go. No network in anybody's cell phone, leeches and other scary insects around, can't keep your foot down for more than a second we had to be on the move. We tried screaming out for help... but to no avail. Nobody could hear us. We all started losing energy and hope. All sorts of uncanny thoughts scraped my mind.. 'what if we have to stay here forever' 'what will we do for food' 'how long will we survive'... the thoughts were never ending. To make things worse, it started drizzling... Some of the girls began to cry. We guys took turns in trying to take an alternate route and reporting where it leads to.

This routine carried on for a while until finally we reached a point where there was heavy water flow and far off in the distance we could see a small hut. We got tiny signs of relief. No matter what we had to get there. There were several small rocks which we had to skip across to reach a point where we had to climb up to a higher level. The guys provided a hand to the girls and helped them across and then we reached the point where two of us gave a boost to one of my friends and he got up to the higher level. Then with his help, the rest of us could get up. The rest of the path to the house was simple. There were not many leeches in this area. We reached the house and found some residents inside. We were relieved.

We cleansed ourselves up. They offered us water and directions to get out of the place. We rested there for a while. We offered them all the food we had in return. None of us were hungry anymore. All we wanted to do was get back.

On the way back, we met the other group who, unfortunately, also did not get to see the waterfalls. We then went back all the way to our mini bus and headed back.

In the bus all were dead exhausted. All were just discussing about the entire thing that happened. We did not get to see the falls for sure. But what we experienced on this day was a once in a lifetime event which would not have been attempted had we known how risky it actually was. It was surely one hell of an escapade and many of us had lost lots of blood on this day.

The next day when all of us met in college, all we did was discuss what happened over and over. It had surely brought us all much closer to each other. It really created a bonding amongst us which was never there before. The memories of this day will stay in all our hearts for a long long time...