The world is flat...VERTICALLY!

"pls let it be full......lord..."
That is exactly what Pancily's chat said, when I told him that I was going forward with the trek even if he was stuck in Mumbai with his work. It was Pancily who told me about the 350ft rappelling at Naneghat on Feb 21st. But later, he had got the deadline for his project as 22nd feb which pulled him back. Girivihang trekkers, a club from mumbai was organizing it, and they would have it again only after diwali. So this was my best chance. Just as Pancily hoped, their bus was fully booked! But as they were coming from Mumbai and I was in Pune they told me that they'd let me do the rappelling if I arranged for my travel.

I then called up Viggy and Kini. We decided to go there on bikes. Kini was hungry for a long ride on his new R15! But on saturday, we learnt that naneghat is around 4 hours away from pune on bike, and your back is not going to like the last few kilometres. So Ashwath and Vignesh dropped out! The organizers had told me about Samyak who, along with his friends, was joining them from Pune. When I called him up, Samyak told me they were going in a Tavera, and they had space for another person!! You know what happened after that. :)

The pic that compelled me to go for the trek ;)

We - Samyak, Rishikesh, Anirudh, Prasad, our driver, Sachin and I- reached Naneghat at 12 noon. The Mumbai guys were there and around 30 guys had already finished rappelling. We sat down and waited for our turn to come.Some of the guys who were in line to go next were looking tensed. But the guys who had just finished seemed thrilled and we were eagerly waiting to get going.

 Click on the pic and spot the two guys who are rappelling.

Once everyone from Mumbai had finished, we got to start. They had a two sets of ropes coming down from the top. So a couple of participants could rappel at the same time. After waiting for few minutes, it was my turn. I got into my harness, got the carabiner attached to it and went to the top.

  I was then told how to rappel. The instructions were quite simple; atleast seemed simple when I heard them. Keep your feet at a distance of around 2 feet and do not bend your knees. Lean backwards and using your left hand behind you pull and feed the rope to your right hand, which would be a few inches above your forehead. The sole function of the right hand is to maintain balance. So you must not try to hold the rope tight if you are going down too fast. The speed can be controlled with the left. And if you do not come down in a steady manner you could spin around like a top, as Sachin did. :) This mostly happens if you do not use your feet properly or when the rappel is overhanging (it means the rocks are curved inward).

I wore my gloves. The knots were tied and I was at the edge of the cliff! The first couple of steps weren't very easy. An instructor told me a twice not to bend my knees while going down, because I could bang then onto the rocks if I did. After taking around 4 steps, I started to get the hang of it. The speed started to increase and I started to  literally run backwards [and downwards ;)] for a few seconds. I suddenly realized that the team at the top was no longer to be seen, neither was the control team at the bottom. I was alone for the next 50-75 meters, before I could even see the guys waiting for me down there. But now it didn't matter much. The fun factor had overcome the fear! I was really enjoying it! And before I knew it I was on ground; ground that didn't make a lot of angle with the sea.;)

 Coming back to the base after the rappel.

  
At 430 pm, everyone had finished rappelling. Once the organizers checked the count of people present, we set out for Pune. On the way, in Junnar, we stopped by at Anirudh's gradparents' home. After having some tasty poha and tea there, his granddad took us to a packaging factory they own. The person managing the place showed us around, and it was really impressive!

 After that, it was a non-stop drive to Pune, ending another memorable day and a great experience!

NB: The pics were taken from Kunal Shinde's picassa album of the same trek with rappelling conducted by the same club, Girivihang trekkers in 2009. The first pic was from another blog.

PS: This completes 3 on 'My White List'. :)

Inspired! ;)

PRANKS! I love pulling some pranks on my friends, sometimes on total strangers too! Today I got to witness one; a couple of strangers fooling a third stanger!! :)

This morning I was walking towards Magarpatta junction looking for an auto. The Pune Sholapur highway was abuzz with vehicles as usual. Walking along the footpath, I was spotting the people I see everyday; people I've seen over a hundred times, yet strangers. The cobbler was there, sitting under the banyan tree, trying to polish someone's shoes into a mirror. Next to him there was an 'astrologer' predicting future for another guy. I bet both of them were confused! ;)

Walking further ahead, there were many small shops on the roadside. I noticed a guy walking a few metres ahead of me suddenly slowing down looking at the ground. Bending down, he picked something, and continued walking.

"HEY!!" couple of small boys come running towards him shouting. My guess is that their parents work in one of the shops along the road, as I've seen them there earlier in the area. The boys rush towards the man and tell him something; one of them pointing at his hand. The guy then slowly handed over a wallet; that he had picked few seconds back, looks around him and walks; this time much faster. The boys had placed the wallet there and were waiting for their prey; and its not at all difficult to find one!

The lil boys celebrate their triumph with a Hi-five, and go back... and inspired, I started thinking of something mischievous I could do. :) Will update as soon as something happens ;)

My White List

I watched "The Bucket List" again a couple of months back. The movie is about two terminal patients, played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, who make a list of 10 things they want to do before they 'kick the bucket'.

I tried making a bucket list, but wasn't able to write more than 4-5 items that i really wanted to do. So keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that there's time left before i cash in my chips, i decided to make a shorter short-term-list. This would consist of 5 things to do in the next 50 days. I call it the white list. You can use your wild imagination and creative mind to figure out why. ;) So heres the first white list.

1. Watch an IPL match. The third edition of the Indian Premier League will begin on March 12th in Mumbai. I am yet to witness a live match in a stadium. So being in Pune, this could be a great chance.

2. Rappelling on a waterfall! I have been wanting to do this for a long long time! Another test for my fear of heights! There is scope for rappelling and lot of other activities in places in and around Pune. That is another reason I prefer staying in Pune over cities like B'lore, Chennai or Kolkata.



3. Join some vocational classes for weekends ;). I haven't yet decided what classes to join. Will need to decide soon. :)

4. Considering the present situation, i feel watching 'My Name is Khan' in Maharashtra amidst all the hullabaloo, could have a place in the white list. :P

5. We have been procrastinating the visit to the paintball arena in Kalyani Nagar for quite some time now. Moreover, spending a lot of time playing counter-strike back in the college, I'm craving to shoot someone down. :P

That completes the list. Today is 13th Feb. So a time frame of 50 days would make the deadline for the above white list, 6 weekends later, the 4th of Apr. Will update the space as I finish each item in the list.

Post Scripts:

15/02 I had gone home last weekend. 'My Name is Khan' was released there; but again with a lot of opposition. It wasn't Shiv Sena there but their cousins Bajrang Dal causing problems. The theatres didnt screen the movie on friday, but they did start from the second day. The theatre didn't display any poster of the movie and you could also see a lot of policemen on duty outside. The screens were obviously running houseful; two of them were screening only this movie. Thought not in Maharashtra, I feel thats good enough to strike #4 off. :P

20/02 There were many guys from college in pune today. Yadu, Hari, Sharath, Padmanisha, Tisa, and Aruna were in Pune for the weekend. The number was good, so this was the best chance to play paintball. It is fun only when you have a lot of guys. So along with them and TP, nishana and chitra, I reached the paintball arena at 5pm. As Padmanisha wasn't feeling very good, the remaining 9 of us went on to play. Chitra, TP, Aruna and I were on one side; the rest on the other. We were given some safety instructions in the beginning after which, we had 5 rounds of absolute fun. If you haven't done this, get around 10 of your friends and rush to the nearest paintball zone! That completes #5.

21/02 I was quite tired after yesterday's paintball. But could I have missed today's rappelling because of that?! ;) #2 done. Check the post here .

13/03 The 3rd edition of IPL began yesterday in the DY Patil stadium, with a grand opening ceremony. With Pancily, I witnessed it and a great match between KKR and DC, that followed. Its a totally different feeling when you watch a game live in the stadium. You need to watch a match in a stadium atleast once; and you would probably enjoy it more if its a IPL. #1 is also done now. 1 more to go!

03/04 This one took couple of weeks. I had a hard time deciding which classes to go for. Finally I made up my mind. Its kickboxing every Saturday and Sunday morning! That completes #3 and my first White List is finished successfully; in time.