RETROSPECTION - 2013

        I have never been on a roller coaster. So, I cannot tell if 2013 has been a roller coaster ride for me. Sure, I had my ups and downs. I had moments of ecstasy and spent moments in low spirits too. I experienced the joy of achieving something and also the despair of failure. I have enjoyed the luxury of new entities and also the agony of losing something. There were situations where I overcame my fear and found the courage in me and also there were situations where I succumbed to fear and did not move forward. I have slowly started to say 'NO', but there were occasions where I could not give a 'NO' , even if that was what I wanted to give. There are situations where I fell, but I also got up, gathered myself and moved forward. Sometimes, I was not motivated enough to get up.

        If I am asked to choose one thing that 2013 has taught me, I would say it taught me, " I should be the reason for Everything in my life". If you are not the reason for everything going on in your life, then you are looking at life with a wrong perspective. Very soon you might end up losing control over your life. 2013 taught me that you should be able to cultivate in yourself every emotion you want to experience. And, you should be able to nurture them or destroy them according to your will. In other words, you should be capable of experiencing all the emotions which took birth in you because of external sources, even without those external sources. You should not only be able to encourage them, but if situation demands, you should be able to let go of those emotions. 

        Till 2012, I had complete control over my life. I am not boasting. I am saying it is boring. That year, I completed my studies and joined a company. I have become a regular IT guy. Apart from running two marathons, I don't remember anything special. May be because there is nothing worthwhile to remember. That definitely says it was a boring year. But what was good about 2012 is that, last few days of 2012 triggered a new phase in my life. I started experiencing new sets of emotions and feelings, which I thought were either non-existing or I might never experience. I began to understand myself. I started loving myself. 

        Regarding people, 2013 made me realize two things. People can be the reason for your happiness, but they should never be the sole reason. People come to your life, bring you happiness and then they are bound to leave. Special people are like one of the many passing clouds, that change the climate, by drizzling they sprinkle cool water drops on your face, give you moments of bliss and then move on. Then it gets sunny again, indicating you that the moments have passed by. You can never find happiness in searching for the next cloud that brings you forever rains, instead of tiny showers. You will be spending rest of your life waiting for the clouds to bring you rain. You will be ignoring those tiny showers, because you are busy waiting for abundant rains. Instead, I learnt that, you should start doing things that bring you happiness, rather than searching your happiness in others. I learnt not to waste my time waiting for things to happen. I realized, man can only be happy by keeping himself busy grabbing every opportunity for happiness. If you feel that only others can bring you happiness, you are never going to get it. 

        The other thing I learnt about people is about their deadliest weapon. Any man who makes you feel guilty for which you are not responsible is dangerous. You may not think so, if you knew the motives of the other person. Feelings of guilt can make a man do anything. Nice people are vulnerable to guilt. Make Rama guilty of not obeying his father, he will spent his life in exile for eternity. Bad thing is these people accept guilt even without questioning themselves- Do I deserve to be guilty? So, the dangerous man is the one who can inject you with guilty feeling and make you do whatever he wants you to do. So, think a lot before you feel guilty. Do you deserve it?

        I had explored and traveled a lot compared to previous years. All these experiences taught me something about myself. Here are some of the things I learnt about myself this year

1. I love running

2. I love riding two wheeler (both cycle and bikes)

3. I feel mountains and hills as my home( thanks to trekking)

4. I too am not immune to feelings like love, jealous, envy, etc..

5. I prefer living my life by myself, without any company like family or roommates.

6. I am self motivated, but the dose is to be administered regularly

7. I have a hair loss problem :P

8. I like photography, not in the way of uploading pics in facebook, but play around with camera. Neither a professional nor an amateur. Someone who just loves to click. 

9. I prefer apathy to most of the other emotions (Damn you world!!)

        I had a whole lot of new experiences this year. I traveled places, met people, made friends. I ran three marathons. Visited 4 new places. Read new books. Here is a glimpse of my 2013

February 10: Auroville Marathon

        It was my third marathon overall and my second Auroville Marathon. During the run, I met an old man aged 68. He had already run more than 15 marathons. He started his marathons when he was around 55 yrs. His company during the run truly motivated me to finish the marathon. I generally dont practice for marathons. So, I need lots of determination and motivation to finish it.

Koilsagar 

    Another memorable event in the month of February is the first trek with GHAC. I went to Koilsagar. It was a day and night trek. We camped on the top of a hill- a fort in ruins. I lied down and gazed at the stars. It was after a long time I was looking at stars filled sky. The view was mesmerizing. I was so lost in them that, I didnt knew that rest of the team had a campfire kind of session- without fire though- until they told me the next day. I was gazing at the stars for more than 5 hours. My words fail to depict the scene. So here is a pic, which might give a glimpse of the night sky. And I was looking through the telescope at saturn in the pic.

Star gazing 

In the morning, we all jumped into a nearby lake and you know what we did there :P

April 14: Birthday of Pinky

        This was the first grandly celebrated birthday among we three friends. We ate lots of cake, chicken and ice cream. Actually, April 14th was not her birthday, but we didn't mind changing date to suit our comforts :P

April 20 : Off Road Cycling trip Cholavaram

         This is my first cycling trip. To give you an idea abt the weather, I will tell you this. This trip was on a summer saturday in Chennai. Trip started at 5am and ended at 10pm. We cycled in the hot sun covering a lake, cashew farms and some villages.

                     

June 22: Aravapally 

        This was my first attempt at climbing hills. It was a one day trek . We reached the place by 9 AM and got back to the base of the hill by 5 PM. This simple trek made me realize my interest in treks.

August 25 : Hyderabad Marathon

        This is my First Marathon in Hyderabad and the toughest one so far. It took me lot of effort to finish it. It is at this marathon, I got my first leg injury. I have covered so much of Hyderabad in a single marathon which I didnt cover in bus.

September 21-22 : Nagala Foodie trek 

        This is my first trek with Chennai Trekking Club, previous one being a cycling trip. This was the easiest one so far. All we did was reach the entrance of Nagala forest, cook ( soup, salad, barbeque,etc...) and sleep for the night. We started walking into the forest in the morning. When we reached the pre-determined spot, we cooked breakfast. There was a small pool. We played in it for sometime, came out, cooked our lunch and had a feast. Then we headed back and reached the entrance of the forest by 6 PM. I was back in Chennai by 10 PM.

              

              

             

                               

November 8-11 : Boat ride to Papikondalu and night camp at Kolluru bamboo huts

        This trip was organised by GHAC as part of their GHAC-Travel and Leisure trip. And it IS a leisure trip !!. All we did was eat, play, sleep and enjoy the beautiful nature around us. First a boat ride for 5 hrs with tasty fish for lunch. Then, camp in bamboo huts. Eat chicken and fish for dinner. Camp fire. Sleep. Get up in the morning and play volleyball in sand. Then get into Godavari stream and enjoy the cool water. Get back to huts, get refreshed and again eat fish and chicken. Then return back. All I remembered about the trip is the scenic beauty of Papikondalu and tasty bamboo chicken.

                         

                          

                  

                          

    

December 1 : Chennai Marathon 

        This is my second Wipro Chennai Marathon and 5th overall. I was not sure if I can make it because I put on 5kgs compared to my previous marathon and I didn't practice. And I finished it. With this, I decided to stop full Marathons for a while and run only half marathons.

December 8 : Uncle's marriage 

        At last the long awaited marriage in my home is celebrated grandly. It was memorable because, it was a marriage performed after a gap of 15 years and also an occasion where I get to meet all my cousins, although we missed one. This marriage gave an opportunity for the entire family to gather at a place.

Me, with my cousins and my mother, with her four sisters

December 14-15 : Kondaveedu and Suryalanka beach

        I do not call this trek tough, but the toughest I have done so far. I reached Vijayawada by 1:30 AM and from there to Guntur by 3:30 AM. I met rest of the GHAC trek members and reached Phirangipuram by 6:30 AM. We had breakfast and reached the base of the Kondaveedu fort by 7 AM. Kondaveedu fort was situated on a group of hills. Our goal is to trek the kondaveedu fort and the hills as much as we can and reach the base by 3 PM. But little did we know about the outcome of our decision. One of the locals intimidated us saying that we cannot climb a particular hill. We started with it and climbed it. Then we aimed at second hill. We reached the top of it. We still had time. So we conquered the third hill. We got down the hill by 4:30pm. And when we tried to recollect all the hills we had conquered, we realised that we would not have moved an inch if we were informed earlier about our targets. In one of our organisers, Chandu's words , "the moment you see your destiny in a trek, you will lose interest in the trek ". I agree with him totally. I felt it was more about exploring rather than reaching destinations. 

              

                  

              

                  

                              

                                      

              

                         

       We had our lunch at Guntur and started to Bapatla for our night stay. We stayed at a beach resort. Enjoyed good food and camp fire. We woke up early the next morning at 5 AM. We took a walk along the beach, enchanted by the beautiful sun rise and occasional sightings of dolphins. Later we vacated the resort, had our breakfast and found shelter in a palm leave shed. We then played in the water and then started back to Bapatla for lunch. We reached Guntur by 6pm and our organisers procured us tickets for the movie Hobbit. I enjoyed the movie, although some of the team slept in the theatre. The trip ended with a sweet called "Malpova" brought by chandu. That felt like a fitting end to the trip

             

             

             

             

             

             

            

              
                                            

December 22 : Campus recruitment

        This was a surprise. I went to my own college to help my colleagues in recruiting students for the company. All I was hoping to do was conduct the written test, correct the answer sheets, short list the candidates for interview and leave the venue.

        And I did that. But, not just that. I have interviewed students too. For the first time I had a perspective to look at interviews from the point of view of interviewer. I saw what an interviewer observes in a student. It was never about rich resume - although big companies shortlist you based on resume - it was more about what you are and how can you project yourself honestly. Then the interviewer judges whether he can recruit you or not. I know that honesty doesn't work in placements. But, you need that to make your life at company peaceful. Bluffing now will only put you in trouble at workplace. If your company finds that you are different from what you projected yourself in the interview, you will land in trouble. I have interviewed four people. I only tried to judge them on what they speak and how confident they are on what they speak.

Book Worm

        Apart from travelling, I read many books this year. Here is the list of books I read this year. A short comment on each book I read .

1. Lord Of The Rings : Many events in the book are entirely different from the movie. To say it rightly, they adapted the novel very well to the movie

2. Catcher of the Rye : A short novel which says " Dying for a cause is immaturity, living for one is maturity "

3. Jane Eyre : Story of an orphan girl. Felt like many movies have copied from this novel. 

4. Motor cycle diaries : You know about this book. 

5. Animal farm :  A sattire on social inequality

6. The oath of vayuputras : The last in the Shiva Trilogy. Worst of the three parts

7. The Perks of being a Wallflower : Story of an introvert
8. Karamazov brothers : A story of three brothers in Russia 
9.Life of Pi :  You know about this
10. Nemesis : Typical crime novel
11. Train to Pakistan : Fiction story based in time period of Inda-Pakistan partition

        I wish to read more books next year than this year. But it may not be fulfilled owing to my other wish of reading "A game of fire and Ice". It already has 5 books. 2 more yet to be published. 


No adios, no welcomes. Here comes the abrupt end to the blog . 

P.S : I planned to write one blog each for the places I visited. It just did not happen. In 2014, I try to change this habit.