Things to carry for a YHA himalayan trek

Avoid carrying too much weight

Mandatory
Good pair of trekking shoe
Sweater
Jacket
monkey cap
Regular cap (you can't always wear a monkey cap. Sometimes it gets really warm during the

day)
Gloves (preferably leather, so that it doesn't get wet when you fall on the snow and put

your hands on the ground)
few pairs of thick socks
toilet paper/tissue papers - (mornings will be cold and you won't be able to touch water)
torch
hawai chappal
toothbrush
paste (small)
soap (small)
water bottles (preferably two 1ltr bottles)
sun screen lotion
sun glasses
rain coat (thin plastic ones)
Under garments
T shirts
Track pants (preferably water proof)
thin towel
Tumbler
Plate
spoon/fork
Tiffin box
Good rucksack
a few plastic covers (in case you need to put a few wet clothes)
some important medicines
thick Needle and thread (in case the bag gets torn)


optional
camera (extra film roles/memory card/battery)
cell phone (you generally get signal only up to base camp and sometimes higher up in the mountains)
very light weight radio
energy drinks (like glucose/electrol)
other eatables
paper/pen (in case you need to take notes)
air pillow
thermals (if you have)
shaving kit
water purifying tablets


sleeping bags, inners and blankets are given by YHA

Going green

Every year, Employees of Sun Microsystems dedicate a week for Global volunteering program. India Engineering Center (IEC) is also very active during this week. One of the events as a part of the Volunteer program, was to clean up the plastic waste at 'Sangama', a popular picnic spot at the intersection of rivers kaveri and Arkavati. Close by is a 'MekedaaTu', another famous getaway from Bangalore. Lot of tourists visit these places every year and leave a lot of plastic waste. Employees of Sun along with volunteers from 'Clean and Green' go on a cleaning program along the banks of river kaveri. Last year (2007), we all had been to Muttatthi and this year they had chosen 'Sangama'. Along with my family (mom, wife, sister and nephew) I joined the team of volunteers at Sangama. The place was a big mess with plastic covers, bottles, gutka packets etc. A group of 60 volunteers worked for 3 hours in the scorching heat to collect 220 KG of plastic waste. The plastic waste was handed to a plastic company in Kanakpura who use it for laying tar for road.
Last year we had collected 303 kgs of plastic at muttatti. You can read about it on April 14 2007 - Mega Acitivity @ Muttathi

The same day evening, I had to attend a wedding reception. I met a few friends at the wedding and told them about the clean and green activity and they appreciated our effort. In most of the South Indian weddings, the guests are given 'Tamboola' (coconut and beetle leaves) as a tradition. It is believed that the guests who attend the wedding should not be sent empty handed and hence there is a tradition of giving tamboola. The practice is to give the tamboola in a plastic cover. My friend told me that in the wedding, they had decided not to use plastic and hence they gave the tamboola in a paper bag, with a very nice note on it. The note requested people to reduce the usage of plastic. click on the image to read the note.
Read A letter to Reliance Industries

Google movies

Here is another interesting service from Google. Want to know, which movie is being showed in which theater at what time?

Just enter your city name. It lists everything.

http://www.google.co.in/movies

10,000 hits

Today, my blog completed 10,000 hits.

Intersting questions

1. What programming language is GOOGLE developed in?
2. What is the expansion of YAHOO?
3. What is the expansion of ADIDAS?
4. Expansion of Star as in Star TV Network?
5. What is expansion of "ICICI?"
6. What does "baker's dozen" signify?
7. The 1984-85 season. 2nd ODI between India and Pakistan at Sialkot - India 210/3 with
Vengsarkar 94*. Match abandoned. Why?
8. Who is the only man to have written the National Anthems for two different countries?
9. >From what four word expression does the word `goodbye` derive?
10. How was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu better known?
11. Name the only other country to have got independence on Aug 15th?
12. Why was James Bond Associated with the Number 007?
13. Who faced the first ball in the first ever One day match?
14. Which cricketer played for South Africa before it was banned from international
cricket and later represented Zimbabwe ?
15. The faces of which four Presidents are carved at Mt.Rushmore?
16. Which is the only country that is surrounded from all sides by only one country
(other than Vatican )?
17. Which is the only sport which is not allowed to play left handed?











Answers

1. Google is written in Asynchronous java-script and XML, or its acronym Ajax.
2. Yet Another Hierarchy of Officious Oracle
3. ADIDAS- All Day I Dream About Sports
4. Satellite Television Asian Region
5. Industrial credit and Investments Corporation of India
6. A baker’s dozen consists of 13 items - 1 more than the items in a normal dozen
7. That match was abandoned after ppl heard the news of indira gandhi being killed.
8. Rabindranath Tagore who wrote national anthem for two different countries one is our ’s National anthem and another one is for Bangladesh-(Amar Sonar Bangla)
9. Goodbye comes from the ex-pression: ‘god be with you’.
10. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu is none other Mother Teresa.
11. South Korea.
12. Because 007 is the ISD code for Russia (or the USSR, as it was known during the cold war)
13. Geoffrey Boycott
14. John Traicos
15. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln
16. Lesotho surrounded from all sides by South Africa.
17. Polo.

Accident movie review

I got this opportunity to watch the Kannada movie Accident starring Ramesh Aravind. Lovedale foundation - an organization which is running an orphanage, recently had a fund raising event. The event was screening of the movie 'Accident' at PVR Cinemas, Bangalore. Actor Ramesh who is one of the supporters of the organization, was present at the event. I took my family to watch the movie, the proceeds of which were given to Lovedale Foundation. There was a small ceremony before the movie began, where dignitaries like Actor Ramesh and the famous singer Kasturi Shankar spoke a few words. I took this opportunity to speak to these people and took their autograph and a few photographs with them.

The movie is Good - worth watching. The movie is about how Ramesh (who is also the director of the movie) goes about unearthing the mystery behind his wife's car accident. The movie is well paced and keeps unfolding the mysteries as the movie progresses. Ramesh has acted well. The person who in my view stole the limelight was the villain of the movie - the health minister. His dialogue delivery is very good with some rusty, blunt, local dialect of kannada.
Apart from these two actors, no one has any significant role. Actress Rekha has done her part well. Pooja Gandhi doesn't have much role to play and she has to improve on her acting skills. Ramesh should have extracted better acting performances from others in the movie.
Except for a couple of songs the music is just average.
Overall, a good job by ramesh and his team.