Thoughts @ Amit Gupta

Adventurous trip to Leh (Ladhakh)

So finally I got a well deserved break from the daily routine with a long pending family vaccation. My Wify always wanted to see some snow clad mountains and I wanted to go on some adventure holiday. And we discovered a perfect mix in the Land of Lamas-Leh.

I have done some goggling before packing our bags for the leh. Few useful tips based on suggestions and personal experiences:

a) Leh is on high altitude and really high So you are bound to suffer from high altitude sickness. The degree of effect may vary from person to person. Common effects:
Breathlessness

Ø Headache

Ø Vomiting

Ø Bleeding from nose

To overcome this you need to drink lots and lots of water. And don’t venture out as soon as you reach Leh. give some time to your body to acclimatized to the conditions. We rested for one full day before any activity.

b) Carry warm cloths, jackets , Caps/Hats nd pair of good sunglasses. (Thanks abhishek for your jacket.)

c) Consult your doctor and take medicines to control effects of High altitude. Carry some first aid medicines with you like Paracitamol, Eno , Disprin , Anti Vomiting drug etc.

We were stationed at Kharu (40 km from Leh) in a beautiful army guesthouse. We didn’t venture out anywhere on this day. Though I can’t resist clicking the beautiful Leh and Sheh city on our way to the guesthouse.

Day 1. We flew with early morning flight of Kingfisher Red (As if we had other options). There are daily flights to Leh from Delhi by Kingfisher Red, Jet airways and Indian. It was a very comfortable flight (highly recommended). Delhi – Leh flight is for 1hr 10 min but there is a difference of more than 10000 feet in height and a variation of 40 degrees in temperature. We landed at Leh airport around 8:30 AM and the temperature outside was 2 degree Celsius.

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Day 2. We were off to Leh city.

a) Hall of Fame: War memorial by Indian army. No photography allowed inside the building but it treasure the war memorabilia’s and weapons from the war fought in this zone, including the Operation Vijay (Kargil war)

b) Magnetic hill : On our way to Gurudwara Pathar Sahib there is a place which supposedly have magnetic properties. Our SUV was pulled towards the hill in engine off condition.

c) Gurudwara Pathar sahib : The Gurudwara got its name from the huge rock (Pathar) which was thrown on Guru Nanak dev ji by some devil. The rock turned soft on touching Guru Nanak Dev and got molded in his shape.

d) Sangam of Indus and zanskar river : Beautiful place where two meets. we had lot of fun at the banks of the rivers’. Couple of hours just passed away.

e) Leh market : Markets are stuffed with woolens, handicrafts and Chinese stuff. Nice place to roam around. I am no shopoholic, so not much interested.

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Few more days of leh watch out the next post J

A close encounter with Vintage Car

A chance encounter with this beauty on National highway 8.  I could’nt resist myself to get clicked with this charming beauty. I felt like a royal…

Reissue of Indian Passport

I filled the application form online from official website and it generated a downloadable format for me to get the photographs done etc. And the best part , I got a appointment online for submission of the form. Somehow I manage to get all my documents in palce and time (Most difficult being proof of residence.

So a journey of five month has come to an end. I have managed to lay hand on my reissued passport after much delay and followup. For the starter an Indian passport has to be be reissued after every 10 years. My passport was about to expire (actually there were still 9 months to go) so I thought to get the same reissued in time. I  was pleasantly surprised to find that system has evolved much since the day I have first applied for the same, year 1999.

ALWAYS REMEMBER :

a) Telephone Bill means only Government line (MTNL or BSNL) no Airtel, Tata Indicom or Mobile bills

b) Bank Statement : Only government banks (No Citibank, ICICI though it is second largest bank in India, No HDFC it may be the largest housing finance banking entity of the country)

AND so on…  Anyways, Fortunately I have one sarkari bank account in Bank of Baroda which actually become the passport to my passport application. So two days of effort to collect documents and 1000 RS down I managed to submit my application. They cancelled my current passport and accepted the application for  reissue. So now I was practically without a passport (with some 9 months still to spare for expiry ).

This was the beginning of long journey, which was suppose to get  over in just 45 days.

The wait begins for the police verification as the passport status site show the status “Awaiting Police verification” from the very next day. After numerous round to ACP office and request for early verification, the same happened some after 60 days.

Now after 90 days I found the new status on the site “Police verification clear, Application under process”. Now starts another round of wait for the processing of passport.

Then the round of mails and personal visit to RPO ensure that I got my passport after 5 months. I feel like being on cloud nine without actually flying

Update ( Feb 27, 2009 ) Months after I got my passport , I got call for a police verification again. As per them My verification is still pending. this send chill through my spine. But fortunately It was some error and I was saved from any hassle.

Update (July 13, 2011) : I applied for passport for my minor daughter under Tatkal and got it within 4 working days.

Trip to Vaishno Devi

I am back in Delhi after a three day trip to Vaishno Devi. The trip was thought and planned a month ag0, But all my planning failed (2 set of cancelled train and hotel bookings) and like every time we were rushing to catch the bus. whatever…

The journey and the destination was worth the effort. It was such a nice weather all through the journey. Everytime I visit the place I seems to be discovering something new and mystical. By the way in a rare occurence (at least for me) I was fortunate to visit the Ardhakuwari temple and the ancient cave of Vaishno Devi in single trip.

View From Our Room

After a trek of 13 km we reached the bhawan (the main temple) and stayed in the room there. And I have the surprize view from my room’s balcony. Our balcony faced the bhawan. We had a full view of the temple from our balcony. It was really a divine experience.

Some of the natural beauty we discovered on the way :

Natural Spring

Goat

Product offsite at Karjat (Mumbai)

Off-sites trainings are fun and this is my second off-site training camp in People Interactive within six months. Now this is advantage of managing multiple portfolios and slogging.  I got to go out with both software and product offsite to take break from work at makaan.

My last visit to Daman with software team was close to sea and this one at beautiful Karjat near Mumbai. The weather was awesome and it almost rained for our entire stay at karjat.

We had a training, presentations, Jam session, treasure hunt all squeezed within two short days. We were literally awake for two days.

This is a very memorable trip for me to Mumbai itself also. After so long I really got the chance to out and see mumbai city. Before this mumbai to me was only our office and road to airport. This time round Me and my team decided to extend our stay in city for a day more.

Our city tour in taxi include visit to Sidhivinayak, Hazi Ali, Gateway of India, Marine drive and Nariman point.

Waiting at airport for the flight back to Delhi. The guy with lappy is me tring to finish this post

One Night @ terminal

My fascination for the city Kolkata ended as soon as I found myself struck in an unusual Traffic jam to airport. A normal route of 30 min took me close to two hours. And for the first time in my life I missed the flight. Now that’s a bizarre feeling of helplessness. It took me another 30 mins to convince the duty manager that in all my good intention I never wanted to miss the flight. Fortunately I managed a  ticket in the first flight out which was next day morning @ 7:00 AM

So I was there at the terminal (The first thought struck me was The Terminal, starrin g Tom Hanks) . But I thought it was only couple of hours before I could return back to my good old Delhi. I decided to catch some sleep at the lounge before airport start buzzing with travelers for the first flight @ 5:00 AM.

But, as the fate would have within 30 min there was tsunami of people who captured the terminal all geared up with stuff for night stay. There were people all around trying to capture every bit of space possible. I have never experienced this before; the airport looks like a railway platform. I had to move to a chair in corner for respite.

But this was only the beginning, best was yet to come. At around 2:00 Pm a airport official woke me up. I was just amused when I saw him equipped him with old age mosquito repellent which throws a lot of smoke. He practically filled the complete airport with heavy smoke to ensure a mosquito free airport.

I just managed to get a two-hour sleep before getting into my flight back. I am happy that my stay @ terminal got terminated after just one night.

Food @ 29000 ft

After a usual delay of 2 hours I took off to Kolkata (City of Joy).  By now you would have realized how much I hate air travel. This time I am traveling Jet Air, which is one of the finest airlines. Thanks to web check in facility, I managed a first row seat in economy class (Advantage to spread your legs and relax a bit).

So I felt like being from upper middle class where all the middle class cramped in their seats. And like all upper middle class who are aspirant to become upper class (Business Class travelers) I wanted to feel the luxury they have.

And as the luck would have due to the wardrobe malfunction (Not the one at Fashion Ramp but the curtain diving the two sections in aircraft) the last row of Business class was straight in my line of sight. I envy the way they were pampered with choice of cuisine.

Though the food served to us was excellent but the pastures are always green on the other side. So, I dig into my breakfast thinking how soon I’ll be part of the upper class.

Fun @ work – Offsite to Daman

Fun @ work takes a new dimension when People Group engineering team has strolled out for the picnic last week. The gyaan sessions seemed to be the coolest thing around. Day one: We headed for resort in Virar (Suburb of Mumbai) for tech presentation to be made by engineering teams.  The event gave opportunity to everyone to come on stage and speak up about the work they’ve been doing and their learning’s. We achieved the very purpose of the get-together KNOWLEGE SHARING. And we end the day with jump in the pool and late night cricket. 

 Day 2: We headed for Daman after a light breakfast. The three and a half hour long journey seemed nothing with everyone having fun on board. Many of us were singing and dancing while quite a few catch up with Ajay Devgan’s flick “Halla Bol”. After having a filling lunch at the beachside in Daman we all rushed to the water park. It was amazing to soak our self and enjoy in thrilling rides of the park. The evening attraction was the wave pool and the rain dance. The day ended with dinner against the vast Arabian ocean as a backdrop with live orchestra playing the hit numbers. We shook our leg till we drop.  

Day 3 : It was the day to relax and chill out. After a lazy morning breakfast everyone wanted to take maximum of the last day of our trip. We headed back to Mumbai after the lunch. The spirit doesn’t seem to die though all of us were dead tired. We reached Mumbai late in the evening and everyone carried sweet memories of the trip with them.