"Drakensberg Hiker" - Review

If you are wondering, yes I wrote the headline in a manner that makes it pop-up easily on Google searches (hopefully it does!) - and any potential service user does have a good pros-cons review to look at first-hand from a user and not as a company advertisement.

First off, the Drakensberg are some of the most beautiful mountain ranges here in South Africa - highest too apparently, at 3482 meters above sea level. The region itself is picturesque and air pristine, fresh and a photographers' delight! I and my husband decided to try out basic level hiking (happily skipping full-day hikes, which we should have considered really) -hence, took the 2 and 1/2 day'ish mode ( consider 3 days when you get billed by 'Drakensberg Hiker').

So my husband contacted Mr. Ian Shooter, who from the site one gleans is a famous hiker in the ranges. He is busy most of the times on long hikes, ranging from 5-6 days to 12 days or more. So we didn't get to go with him - he did arrange for a guide called 'Caiphus' and 2 porters, and a friend of his who was his business partner as well (as we were told) called 'Swannie'. Caiphus is a local guide associated with the Mnweni Centre (http://www.mnweni.org/) , and Swannie is again a mountain enthusiast who seemed to know the range well ( not as well as Caiphus though). Top guys both of them.. good hiking guides.

OK .. here I will just mention pros and cons of hiking with 'Drakensberg Hiker', a next post maybe on our complete hike. I am a very close observer and this post is a completely personal view, deciphered verrrry minutely...

Pros: 

• Very sturdy guys them both, i.e. Caiphus and Swannie... They were apparently carrying 40 Kgs. between them. :O I mean, we had 5 Kgs each - me and my husband, and we were panting like dogs! So they help you all right... If you arrange and pay for porters i.e.
• Both had keen sense of the climate change up in the mountains, helped us from getting stranded in a snow storm! Their warning before-hand made us scamper down at full speed to escape it. We didn't have enough woolens to keep us from freezing had we been stranded. So good call there.
• Driving up to Mnweni Centre - the last 17 kms or so was dirt road ... and generally we've always had rotten luck navigating around the Drakensberg area... So we got quite lost by missing a turn towards the Centre... we called Swannie and he drove all the way out 17 kms to the main road to meet and guide us back safely to the place. So, we were really quite thankful to him! 

 Cons:

• The finance is all hay-wire with Drakensberg Hiker. The cost mentioned to us by Mr. Ian Shooter was a sum total ... when we asked for a break-up of the cost, he didn't want to disclose (cagey information givers are slowly getting added in my 'be suspicious of' list). 
• When we sent repeated mails for more information (well, just about so many times you can ask without offending a seemingly popular person) - we were told that since we were hiring the tent, back-packs, inflatable air-mattresses, sleeping bags, food for all 3 days (cooked freshly especially for you, they say), hiking permits ( if such a thing is there, coz in the end we never signed anything) and 1 night at the Mnweni Centre - It would all roughly be 500 Rand per person per day. Mr. Shooter also mentioned in his mail that the rentals of course adds some profits for him ( which was Ok for us, I mean, he can add his profits and still give us an exact figure, but...he didn't).... Possibly the international hikers they get as customers' can afford to spend on whatever is asked and not bother ... but if you are the type who like finances to be fair and square- it should bother you!
•  We were asked to take 2 porters, as people who don't hire end up regretting, we were informed. So we paid extra supposedly for 2 porters and 1 guide, all as recommended by Mr. Ian shooter. Turns out, Swannie is guide and porter (no such information clarified to us, we thought porters and guides are not clubbed together like that). And then Caiphus is just a porter and guide?! Donno really. Cost of one porter was mentioned 220 Rand per day. So 2 porter cost per day is 440 Rand.
• So 3 days sum total is 1000 Rand for 2 people per day aye. Hence, 3 days makes it 3000 Rand (which was mentioned as 3400 Rand not 3000 Rand), add 3 days' cost for 2 porters.. i.e. 440*3 = 1320 ... Hence total cost = 3400+1320 = 4720 Rand.
• We paid it thinking everything should be good and fine. But I am not sure it was... and here's why... As it turned out.. we didn't climb or use the services of Drakensberg hiker for more than 2 days ( as it snowed in the mountains and we had to return). So basically we over-paid for the 3rd day and porter costs. We are entitled to a refund of atleast 1500 Rand, if not 1800 Rand ( if somebody has more ethical operations perhaps would refund, here sadly that doesn't seem to be the case). We have mailed Mr. Ian Shooter and its been more than 2 week and he has not bothered to respond.
• The day we were returning from the mountains, I distinctly asked Swannie that considering we were returning early and need to now stay at the Mnweni centre for a night instead of up in the mountains - 'hopefully we won't be paying for staying at the Centre' ( a charge of 170 Rand per person there per night). Considering obviously we are paid up for a longer trek than what we got - using the tent n all!.... Swannie said "ya of course, you won't need to pay" ... but changed his statement after we reached the Mnweni Centre... Me with my sense of this financial imbalance got quite annoyed and told him so. I couldn't quite avoid smirking as he said "See I don't carry cash and have no money at all"... a little bit more annoyance from us had him pay by credit/debit card... duh!
• We were newbies, so we didn't hike as fast as it was necessary to see up the Rockeries pass , or see the Cape Vulture colonies, or reach the summit - all things vividly painted a picture of by experiences hikers and guides... It was sad, that we didn't see any such thing and it annoyingly drizzled and rained throughout this hike up. I donno whether that was something that nagged me all along as we didn't get what we paid for.. everything at a premium , and us ourselves not hiking so fast. Tad bit sad aye!
•  Also food from Drakensberg Hiker QUITE inadequately comprised of the following - ( we are vegetarians, so automatically under the 'uh-oh' category in most places... )... still....
• Day 1: morning a bowl of bland oats with resins in it... for lunch 2 buns and a slice of tomato each with some salt ...dinner was a small bowl of ready-made pasta that one mixes with water and boils (Swannie did offer more if we wanted, but considering we were disgusted with the measly food, somehow both me and my husband didn't ask for more). We did get huge mugs of milk-powder teas with the meals. Swannie quite proudly proclaimed "I like to treat my customers to chocolates post dinner in the mountains" - we grinned at that... It turned out We offered them chocolates, and they conveniently forgot anything related to 'em much promised novelties from their end!!! haha...
• Day 2: Morning again small bowl of oats with resins, lunch apparently was boiled eggs !!!!!! ( I mean, it was difficult to get over it...lol...) We prayed that he wasn't serious about giving us boiled eggs for lunch! But then , we had to turn back and move down the mountain to the Centre coz of the storm and rain... And Swanni spoke long stories of hot lunch and hot tea and hot shower blah blah... and (mind you I have an elephants' memory!! :P .. so I did manage to pull his leg on his chocolate thingie... haha - which by the way he did hand over after returning)... Almost down the mountain and near to the Mnweni Centre ( my husband had somehow pulled his right knee muscle), Swannie volunteered to walk faster and fetch his vehicle and come and assist us on the last stretch... (which was damn neat of him!) but we sit in his vehicle and he goes " as we reach the Centre, I will give you your dinner at 4 pm!!!"... his promise of lunch conveniently forgotten!!!! ... Thankfully we asked for our lunch, and asked for dinner... (which by the way, we had all paid for.. and he was now being very miserly with!).... The porter and guide all free by 2nd day evening, as both Caiphus and Swannie ran away to their cozy homes... ( I cannot put it any other way.. sorry... the finance is ridiculous)!! The dinner was rice and mutton-favoured soya (who leaves mutton flavouring for vegetarian customers?????!!!!)
• Day 3: Since we stayed at the Mnweni Centre, Swannie left some cereal for 3rd day morning .. and he showed tea-bags that he apparently put in the plastic  in front of my husband (which he took away later) as there was none when we came for it!! ... This behaviour was too weird for me to tone down or to skip mentioning. 
•  I am sure Drakensberg Hiker gets many international tourists and no local repeat customers perhaps, that is why once they are done with what they think is correct.. they do not bother to communicate back.
• In an email that we received from Mr. Ian Shooter while booking the trek with Drakensberg Hiker.. he mentioned some essentials "you just need to bring sturdy boots, 3 prs. socks, 2 shirts for walking in and 1 long sleeve for sleeping in, 1 shorts and 1 long pants, rain coat (you never know), head lamp, toilet paper and wash kit, personal meds,  wet wipes, book, 2 fleece jackets and I give all my clients a warm hat that I hope you will wear with pride and warmth.".... we got all of them, minus the much anticipated "warm hats" that we were quite willing to wear with warmth and pride... we met Swannie, we mentioned something on the lines to Swannie... and he had never arranged for any such "warm hats" for his customers!!! He had one on though.... :P ... 
•  Discount everything Swannie says by 50%, coz that is what you finally get.

Rating for Drakensberg Hiker on a 10 point scale is a : 3 ( sorry it just cannot be more). 

"Ganesha on the dashboard" by V. Raghunathan and M.A. Eswaran

A book gifted by my mum-in-law this. From the cover-page one thinks its some funny or perhaps sarcastic take on some Indian superstitions and our multitude of gods. The small review at the back of the page gives a clearer picture though. Its a very informative, sarcastic as well as witty take on the concept of gods and the weird Indian belief in everything "supernatural". 

Ask me, I debate with my folks and have fought on things I have never been able to comprehend. Imaginably I finished the book in 3-4 days flat! It has given me more meat in my never-ending talks and debates with my folks and other elderlies I know (I shall not name 'em)...  Hence, I am happier than ever to promote it here.. If you are ever interested in the "ether"ly being ... read this book for your own sake - It is very informative!

The book starts with paradoxes we Indians happily take to... for eg: we break coconuts and do "Gaadi puja" (Vehicle prayer) and spend money on bribing gods into saving our behinds from accidents but refuse to wear seat-belts! Such and many other examples are given (quite true believe me). It also analyzes extensively our collective lack of scientific temper... (again very very true)... mindless unquestioning belief on customs and culture ...without correcting or correlating them with scientific understanding or advancements in the form of proofs and explanations that are readily available nowadays.Any form of challenge posed on our gods is always marked as a mark of disrespect - not only on the gods but the clan, elders and such. ( Hence, I hold a pretty bad name in my clan, mind you.. without any guilt ;) ).

I won't post spoilers on the narration - you have to read it to understand concepts coherently... I also wish (as the book also says) that Indian people develop a healthy questioning Scientific Temper. That would help us deduce logical explanations for things that happen to us; and not just a fatalistic belief on everything beyond our comprehension... it is also about developing the willingness to try and change!

A pretty wollen cap with ear flaps

A tea-berry coloured beanie/ cap  - hand-knitted by yours truly...:)

An immensely crafty season :) ...

Maroon coloured woolen cap

Turned out to be an immensely artistic and crafty (with respect to knitting) March 2012 for me... started making some more interesting stuff.. learned a lot online ... browsing through and looking at various websites of expert knitters.

Pretty looking maroon scarf/muffler

Home-made beads necklace and earrings set

Here's another pretty creation, looks fantastic with a dress! (goes without saying I am thrilled to have been able to make something like this) :D

Another burst of craftiness ... Making earrings!

I am Obsessed with them, I Own loads of 'em... and there are few other things that cheer me up like buying/owning/wearing interesting Earrings... On a day of sudden burst of creativity, here's something I made... :)... 

'A Slice of Pi' - A wonderful read!

Maths and me... hmm... I refuse to agree that I was bad at it in school, coz I was not (most of the times) - but the 12th grade maths exam was definitely a low point - I was jaded with teachers who didn't know what they were talking about (having themselves mugged every bit of every line perhaps, and their vain attempts at teaching concepts they themselves didn't have a grasp of).... I won't say that for the particular Maths teacher in my 12th grade, coz she was a splendid woman ( she is!) but the trickery of getting the subject of Maths beyond just the usual drag .. and into the "interest" part of ones subconscious?!... umm, I donno whether she did that to me. 

So here I picked up a book that looked quite interesting... and the author has done a simply superb job of explaining soooo many doubts of mine (which I am sure perked up in my head when I was learning them, but dare you question silly usual "given assumptions" - don't ask why - that's how we learned... or I learned). So she details out fractions, irrational numbers, Fibonacci series, magic numbers, multipliers, short-cuts and what not's. There is an abundance of interesting detail on well known mathematicians ( none of my teachers ever told me any of That!) - Gauss, Newton, Einstein, Fermat, Napier, Archimedes, Pascal, Eratosthenes, Goldbach etc. .. about their personalities, how they became Mathematicians and what made them tick - also what paranoia each one had etc. - that info makes them so much more comprehensible!

Ahh.... also as the name of the book goes - there are SUCH interesting details about Pi  i.e. the value 3.14 and how it is part of soooooo many things in nature even, symbols and signs - things we normally wouldn't know. 

There is also an interesting bit on Pythagoras, Pythagorean's and  algebra- Ooh what a treasure trove of a book!!

"Airframe" by Michael Crichton

Ah yeah! I have mentioned before that the topic of  'Aircraft' warms my heart, lungs, kidneys etc. like nothing else... So, found "Airframe" on sale at some local discount shop... I forget where... but well yea, saw it and pounced on it! :D ... Also, read it like there was no tomorrow. It IS a compulsive page-turner.... and I often caught myself second-guessing what might happen next and ran ahead 2-3 pages just to quench my curiosity! After all 'Jurassic Park' and 'Lost World' did exactly that as movies (also authored by Michael Crichton)... It is definitely well recommended - you can finish it in 2 days flat! - seriously.

So well, you have a TransPacific flight going from Hong Kong to California and it undergoes a curious accident which is reported as turbulence by the pilot, killing 4 and injuring about 58 odd people (which a turbulence never does really). So it turns out, nobody understand what happened on the flight, and the blame lands on the manufacturers of the aircraft, a company called Norton.

Norton have an impending bulk order to China and hence have to race against time, to investigate and find the actual cause of the accident, lest their deal fails - resulting in immense damage to their brand name and subsequent closure of the company itself. So their Quality Assurance personnel, a lady called Katherine is assigned the task of solving the issue .... the story takes you with her rationale and intensive sleuthing (not only about the components that form the Aircraft - i.e. the Airframe itself) but also against her own co-workers and bosses and the story spins an intensive spell of skulduggery and mismanagement - even though the people on the floor are dedicated specialists who have immense knowledge of how much strain an aircraft can and will take! They build Airframes to take strain in multiple of more than 12 times or so what an aircraft claims on paper!!

It takes you into how union-workers bully management, and also (my favourite parts include...) on how Katherine handles Media 'Superstar' Hard-Talkers - who do not know anything about any technical information, nor do they care a damn about it. Sensational sells and that's all they really care about. A normal person, I can imagine, would undergo a nervous break-down under such immense pressure - and reading the novel makes you feel really good about the lead character; her practical mind really does handle all the shit really well!

Gym 1.37 and more from 15th Feb to 5th March 2012

Oh yea, I had too many things on my mind to update gym sessions here... which was fun when I was doing non-stop and became repetitive and kind o boring after a while ....to write online i.e.. But the sessions in all practicality continue ... and so it shall be... but I am not very sure of regular updates. Maybe/ Maybe not! :)

Gym 1.36

14th Feb 2012: Tuesday - Attended Ben's Stepper class after a longish gap... :) .. but, Not bad!

My 1st ever Muffler/ Scarf .... :D

Continuing in that crafty last week, though this took me more time than the hat I knitted... but managed to make an over-sized but really savvy Tea-berry coloured scarf /muffler ( as you may want to call it).

The fringes in the end just look damn neat! :) ... Again, making this made me feel very happy ... as creating something from scratch is a lot of fun!

Gym 1.35

10th Feb 2012: Friday - I went late to Ben's aerobics class and saw it to be brimming full of people ... so lack of space drove me to do my usual cardio routine.

Sat and Sun skipped.

13th Feb 2012: Monday - what a shame = skipped coz of a very zzzleeeeebeee me.

A crafty week that was :D....

A pretty pink woolen cap with a biggish rim.

Always wondered how it would be to knit something from scratch... :) apparently not too difficult and looks pretty too! Made in a day and half including time to scratch head on how to proceed at certain moments during the knitting process. You Tube certainly is a good place to look for guidance.

All that I'v read till date - Part 3

8.) Liar's Poker, by Michael Lewis - If you have any inclination towards Bonds and equity trading - its a Must- Read. I identified with it completely and re-read it numerous times... and felt sooo soooo much better with my trading career. Trading is a window into the worst side of people, coz money is directly involved and emotions raise and fall in a matter of minutes... As a trader - one moment you are the hero and your client loves you to smithereens ... and in split-seconds.. you will hear swear words that can be best described as being from the slums.. :D... its a bad, mad world and the book is a hilarious real life narration of the author's experience at Salomon Brothers.

9.) The Last lecture, by Randy Pausch - Hmm... its a sad story but an awesome teaching. The author was a teacher and was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer and wrote the book as a memoir of himself and his thoughts, especially for his children ( so that they remember him well after he is gone) .... He lists instances of how he planned everything in life for it to happen... ways to get around BIG hurdles ... how to love people you care about - record and express it. Basically he takes you through step-by-step method of doing whatever the hell you want to accomplish in your life. Its a senti-read, no doubt! Good one though for anybody...

Gym 1.34

7th Feb 2012: Tuesday - Skipped

8th Feb 2012: Wednesday - Skipped

9th Feb 2012: Thursday - Cardio.... 

wasted week till now.. :/ 2 out of 4 days only. 

All that I'v read till date - Part 2

5.Fooled by Randomness: The hidden role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - A very good read indeed, marginally technical in case you don't understand Probability and the markets in general. I liked reading it  - tells you how human mind is always looking for symmetry in all events and circumstances - we believe that history repeats in a certain way - which it perhaps does not. Events are random and so are our "chances" - Worth grabbing with both hands as and when you do get!

6. Zen and the art of Motocycle Maintenance - An Inquiry into Values, by Robert M. Pirsig - I cannot handle philosophy ... and this proved a tough read for me. Some of it made sense, but basically I wont be reading it again for sure. :) 

7. Illusions, by Richard Bach -  I AM MADLY IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK, I keep it with me where ever I go.... 

Some lines stuck to me like super-glue, for example

"You define your own limitations".... 

Reading and re-reading it has helped me get over a lot of mental blocks, get over people, get over tough situations... with ease. Fill yourself with positive people, there should be no space for "can not" and "should not".

Gym 1.33

3rd Feb 2012: Friday - Ben's Aerobics session .... always so damn cool! :) 

Weekend skipped

6th Feb 2012: Monday - A general Cardio

All that I'v read till date... :) - Part 1

Here's a running series I tried maintaining on LinkedIn - the professional network, but I discovered that they delete the books' list and my comment remains but the name of the book disappears. Hence, I CHOOOOOOSE to blow my own trumpet here and list everything I have read :D... Its a nice list and I am proud of it!! :)

In random order:

1. The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1), by Jonathan Stroud- Madly in love with Bartimaeus a witty and powerful djinnie that takes you to ancient times along with his magician called Nathaniel  and a very powerful commoner girl called Kitty and they spin a story which is fast paced and an absolute delight to somebody who loves reading adventure stories. It falls under the category of kids' stories but I disagree - anybody of any age will surely and thoroughly enjoy it! Bartimaeus claims to be a follower of Ptolemy and associates himself with greats like Archimedes .... and the way he puts it is nothing less than an absolute hoot! 
2. The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 2), by Jonathan Stroud
3. Ptolemy's Gate (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 3), by Jonathan Stroud
4. River God - A Novel of Ancient Egypt, by Wilbur Smith - There is a character called "Taita" - he is an eunuch who was castrated by the then Pharaoh. A story that takes you to ancient Egypt set along Thebes and Nile... Its mythical, its fantastic! Taita is a resourceful being, multifaceted , multi-talented and he is hardly ever fatigued. When I read it, I wished the novel would never finish... :)... If I am even a 100th part as efficient as Taita, my life would be truly awesome! 

Gym 1.32

30th Jan 2012: Monday - :D Monday Bluezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

31st Jan 2012: Tuesday - Weirdly I thought going to gym on my own Birthday is demeaning ... Tell me how weird is THAT! :D... Thank you, I'm an idiot.

1st Feb 2012: Wednesday - Ben's Katabox ... and after class I tripped on a reversed set of rowing benches that was turned without warning... :/... stupid rower machine ..thing..

2nd Feb 2012: Thursday - General Cardio

Gym 1.31

27th Jan 2012: Friday - Ben's aerobics class.....

Sat, Sun skipped days of gym....

Gym 1.30

Jan 23rd 2012: Monday - went did a lot of different things regarding cardio and threw in some Toning as well...

Tuesday - Skipped

Jan 25th 2012: Wednesday - Ben's Katabox

Thursday - Skipped :/

Ahh cooling down of tempers and a very imp lesson learnt

OK after my prev outburst, I am saner now... Wee bit better ... nothing more... Its hard to get rid of that all weirdly cynical feeling of complete loathe... BUT I improved my mood... started reading "Illusions" by Richard Bach to get all my positive vibes back... hmmm...

The thing I learn while dealing with people is ... the faster you insulate yourself... the faster you learn to neutralize your feelings - without letting go of your actual nature and a tad bit aggression - the better-off you are. 

I shall now start counting days till I would need to re-boot and re-read positive vibe emitting books... try to meditate etc etc.... some things just take time to percolate into me.

My growing cynicism

Eh! The levels of my cynicism is multiplying every single day. I have stopped relating to sooo many people... its not funny! :/ I know I tend to be critical and take tensions generally be a shade 'roll my eyes' sort of person everyday... but this current bout of absolute hate, loathe and lack of trust is... staying... 1 month now... huh! I have reason one-too-many....

1. People are 'BORING'.... umm.. showy... self-centered, ill-mannered....

2. Everybody is bothered with everybody else.... I mean "Mind your own biz" should be a subject in school    really.

3. Negativity is contagious ... IT AFFECTS MEEEEEEEEEEE 

4. I hate people preaching to me.

5. I hate being instructed.

6. I am stuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk .... From a country with numerous modes of transportation to one that has none (or something you can spot rarely) - this place is a foot-and-casual-searching-and-roamer-around-ers nightmare.... 

7. I have too many utterly obnoxious, rude relatives and acquaintances.... (should it really be bothering me?! hmm...)

:( .... jeez I have a huge list. ... Writing it down seems to me as a affirmation for the feeling itself to stick around more.... AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

'Looking Down Ones Nose' at people....

I wanted to mention this in my post about "Maximum City - Bombay lost and found" review that I wrote some days ago, but eventually forgot as I got caught in the mode of mentioning whats in the book itself.

In there, while reading the book I realized how many of the criminals and bar girls mention how and when they started doing what they are doing... why? what was the origin?  - The consistent answer was more or less on these lines: Person is poor and/or from a low social class... life presents the person with woes, ill health, loss of parents, siblings getting killed by someone else, loss of money, loss of job, loss of self-esteem ... and the person in panic goes to the finer sense of the general public for help... pleads for something ... wants help or else is looking at imminent doom or loss of something very special or dear. And what does the 'finer' sense of public do? .... Its anybody's guess... We look DOWN on them, its not our duty, its not our head-ache, we feel 'oh what a pain'.. 'oh what riff-raff'... its a general sense of immediately looking down on such people as pests... and closing our doors on them. 

I am not saying that I as an individual or my family as my close people, have also never done that to anybody - in all probability we have - and the price to pay have never been worth it. 

These people who need help and don't get it, more or less develop a sense of 'injustice' and lots of anger. They then lose their sense of right, wrong, society and in general their own thinking of justice - coz they never did get any from anybody. As we all remember people who stand by us, in our worst times - so do they..... And since, nobody did, they like to join groups that inflict some form of 'revenge' - bomb blasts, killings, rapes etc. I am pretty sure, when they are caught or punished they feel no remorse at their deeds. I mean, they never did receive any justice to start with to understand it completely. 

I think this goes for countries, tribes - how they treat each other and whether they 'look down' on other communities, religions etc.... In my understanding, its the starting point to a lot of vices...  Perhaps, when we look down at someone again on the roads, in our everyday lives - a slight modification can actually be a slight change - for good!

Gym 1.29

19th Jan 2012: Thursday - Compensated for missed gym on Tuesday - with a strong cardio session. The aim being maintaining atleast 4 days a week gym routine. 

20th Jan 2012: Friday - Ben's aerobics class at Virgin Active... some new faces in the group and the usual no-more-than-courtesy-smile attitude of the general public... (sigh, I miss the chatty friends at my aerobics class in Delhi, India - everyday a huge BIG smile on everybody's face there!!)... nevertheless, Ben's enthusiasm is worth everything and the vibe of the whole class energizes me as well! :)  - Group classes are always fun!

Gym 1.28

18th Jan 2012: Tuesday - Slept late on Mon and got up late Tue and everything seemed to look 3/4 times itself... so zzzzzz'd and skipped gym. :P

19th Jan 2012: Wednesday - I have instant guilt in-built... so woke up and ran to class - attended Ben's 'Katabox'.

"Maximum City - Bombay Lost and Found" By Suketu Mehta

 My last read was called "Maximum City - Bombay Lost and Found" by an NRI (Non-resident Indian) author who spent some of his childhood and formative years in the financial capital of India i.e. Mumbai (erstwhile Bombay) and most of his young - adult life in New York. This is his narrative on how he tries to find familiarity with a city he left as a kid and tries to relate to it in its current state.

I love that city as some of my best years' at the start of my employed life and away from my parents started there - and even though it rapes your pocket off money and your mind off peace - it still enriches you with experience not paralleled in any similar city in India. Hence reading and understand the city with the author seemed extra special to me and I could hardly put the book down. 

The author meets all kinds of people who inhabit the city and circumstances you find yourselves in if you live there - from Gangsters, policemen, Prostitutes/ Bar-dancers/ call-girls, normal slum dwellers, political workers, ministers, an everyday financial market worker, hard-working normal people (ignorant), the famous local train and its idiosyncrasies, the mad rush to everywhere, the hyper-posh filthy-rich people, the bunch that makes up Bollywood - actors, directors, financiers (seems it includes a lot of under-world money), what all is right with the city and of course, what really makes the city wrong as well. 

A lot of it is a reflection of India as a totality, but foremost in my head is the clarity on Gangsters and gang-wars and the staged 'encounters' by the police to kill these outlaws. This bit, I agree didn't end with a feel-good factor as violence is never good - and the line between right and wrong - law and an out-law is very thin and rather feeble.

On the other extreme the book also mentions the story of a rich diamond trader who along with his family of teenage kids and wife - decide to leave the city life with its modernity and give away all their wealth and possessions and wander off into a life of begging - a life which shuns all material possessions. Pretty difficult that - even to attempt for a month (for me personally as I could think of it). How a city can push people to extremes and be an extreme on its own in lieu of its inhabitants, makes up what was for me a bloody good read!

Gym 1.27

13th Jan 2012, Friday: A day of full-blown aerobics cum toning at Ben's class.

Sat & Sun  - 14th and 15th Jan 2012: Self-declared rest days :D

16th Jan 2012, Monday: Self-routine of cardio - stepper, bike, arm-cycle (donno what its technically called), cross-trainer, rowing, some weight training for quads and tread-mill - all in 1 n 1/2 hour. Now that I listed it here, it sounds like too much but didn't seem like that for sure! 

Gym 1.26

12th Jan 2012:  I declare it a Rest-Day for gym today, coz I went 3 days non-stop and a break for a day is not a bad idea I think. :) Maybe some meditation and Yoga is a good idea, that I intend to do.

Gym 1.25

11th Jan 2012: Wednesday meaning Ben's Katabox class attended :D, and the lady at the reception of the gym said it 'looks like' I have lost weight :D... (BIGGG FOOLISH GRIN).... umm I know that's not really true, so I wiped that off and proceeded with my drone-ish existence. 

Someday.... :D

Gym 1.24

10th Jan 2012: Ben's Step-class... after a longish break and i discovered what crappy stamina I possess. BUT its a matter of routine perhaps. Maybe the next Tuesday class would be better aye! :)

Gym 1.23

7th Jan 2012: Cardio day again.
8th Jan 2012: Yoga and general Sunday laziness... 
9th Jan 2012: A 1:1/2 hour power cardio session along with limited toning exercises - especially the quads for the knee.... I have started very very verrrryyyy slow jog on the tread-mill... least my right knee start paining again. Some physio for it helped. How weird, the bone alignment is something I would not have even though about had this not started as a problem issue.

Year 2012 and my Gym 1.22

Aah I wish everybody a very Happy and Prosperous 2012!! :)  ... New Years' is such a farce aye... the dating system is man-made.. the AC and BC is speculative and shoved down the throats of generations who are happily following things blindly - I don't mean to say that we are all wrong ... I just mean that there was no year '0' or '1' and nobody knows anything about it - just segregation of BC and AD . Some random day they started dating things ... 'back' and 'henceforth' kinds. So well... anywho - conventions being questioned is never a bad thing. But as a matter of keeping time and repetitiveness - I hope the forthcoming repetition of 12 measured months is fruitful, beneficial and sensible to one and all! :D

I have decided to keep things even more simple than they already are. And I have also decided to do more of things in my head than to follow anything ever instructed/expected/ forced/anticipated of me. Not that anybody is sitting on my head right now.... But sometimes society pushes everybody in the direction of mounting expectations. Well, I am simply going to turn a blind-eye to that specific part and be slightly more 'Outlier-ish' (umm ... might be off the chart kinds... coz I never was in-line to start with :P). 

So post this New Year rambling I shall narrate my (now seemingly repetitive) gym routine. :D Halleluiah! 

OK 31st Dec 2011 - 3rd Jan 2012: I yawned, gt happy for New Years', lazed, contemplated... but did no exercising. 

4th Jan 2012: Just when the start seemed bleak... I went for an evening session of cardio.

5th Jan 2012: Cardio again.. morning session .. mixed with some toning for the legs. Came back , did Yoga (breathing exercises + sun-salutation)... and say 10 min of meditation (even 2 min of meditation is sometimes pretty tough for fidgety people like me).