Sagar Island

Woh kehte hai na, sab teerth baar baar Gangasagar ek baar.

Having lived in Calcutta for almost 21 years, we had never been to the Sagar Island and hence Gangasagar, the southernmost tip of Bengal, one of the islands of the largest delta in the world (Sunderbans) where the Holy river Ganges flows into the Bay of Bengal (Ganga and Sagar).

We left early on the 2nd of Jan, 2011, at 0730 hrs in a TATA Sumo. Reaching Gangasagar is a tough job. You need to take a bus/hired vehicle that'll take you to the Lot No. 8, also known as Harwood Point, which is about 75-80 kms from Kolkata. As it was an early Sunday morning of a fresh new year, the car was cruising blindly past Ganguly's home, IIM-C, Diamond Harbour among other places. The morning chill was hitting the face squarely and I was feeling the goosebumps.

After a duration of 2:25 hrs, we finally reached Harwood Point, a jetty on the Hooghly river through which one ferries across to the Sagar Island. The ferry operates every hour starting from 0500 hrs in the morning, though timings change frequently due to change in tides. The Hooghly river at this point is about 3.3 kms in length and at present there is no rail or road bridge connecting the two sides. The West Bengal Government, though, is planning to connect it with a road bridge at an estimated cost of about Rs 6000 million.

From the mainland

The ferry takes Rs 6.50 per person, but charges rocket up to Rs 50 during Mela time (which occurs in Mid January on Makar Sankranti). About 6-8 lakh pilgrims reach the Sagar to take a dip in the holy waters during the mela every year. We got ourselves three tickets and started to proceed towards the ferry. The freezing chill winds of the Ganges was enough to produce reverberations in the body and sent a chill down the spine every second.

On the island

We scrambled for seats and got them luckily. The ferry takes about 25 minutes to cross the river and the flow of the river made us zoom to the other side. We reached the other side, where only buses or small vans carry people to the Gangasagar. We shared an ACE Magic with another family. There is only one road that cuts through the heart of the island and there are a lot (and I mean lots of) of bumpers along the way. We reached Sagar in 45 minutes thanks to the sheer flying of the ACE Magic van (It's a pretty fantastic van, I must admit).

We then walked to the sea to take a dip. There are 5 roads at present leading to the shores, to accommodate the lakhs of pilgrims during the Mela. We were at Road No. 3, where the famous Kapil Muni Temple rests. It is about a km from the shore, and it is said that during the Mela, the waters of the ocean touches the feet of the temple, submerging everything else in and around the temple. The only source of electricity is from the four windmills constructed specially for the Mela.

Kapil Muni Temple

After taking the dip in the chill waters, and praying in the temple, we sat at a small hut for tea and lunch. Refreshing ourselves, we then left the Sagar. Sagar consists of lots of hungry dogs (and they are seriously very hungry), lots of beggars, and lots of bumpers along the road. On our return trip the ACE Magic was literally flying on the road, only just kissing the ground barely. It took us around 35 minutes to reach the jetty, where we boarded the ferry back to the mainland.

Crowd in ferry

The ferry was overloaded with almost 300 passengers, and we couldn't get a seat this time. The ferry was battling the opposite flow of the river and we could see a couple of oil rigs in the midst of it.

Oil Rig

As soon as we were reaching the shore, the ferry stopped and it was due to the sudden low tide that the ferry was unable to dock into the shore. Frantic people helplessly started talking and we couldn't do much than wait. Even though we could see the jetty at 50 meters from where we were and we could do nothing. There is no emergency evacuation measures there, and one has to wait only till the high tide comes.

Mighty Hooghly

All weird sorts of ideas kept coming in my mind, like sending a S.O.S Morse Code through the bells of the ferry, sending a S.O.S. through the smoke of the ferry, calling 911, praying the moon to affect the tides, updating my Facebook status (which I did), throwing ropes to the shore and asking pulling people to pull the ferry, among others.

Low Tide

Finally after a wait of almost 1:35 hrs, the tide did rise, and the ferry was shoved against another one, which was docked. Finally, we climbed through the other ferry and reached the jetty. Had a hot adrakh-ki-chai and finally was on our way back to our home ! The adventure didn't end there. The National Highway 117 is a single lane highway, which can hardly occupy two buses at the same time. There was a hell of a traffic jam, and we were caught in the jam for about 2 hrs. We finally reached home at 2100 hrs and had some garma-garam soup and finally slept off to a very tiring journey.

Directions

Even though the trip was physically and mentally very tiring, I and my parents enjoyed every moment of it and it is very rightly said sab teerth baar baar, Gangasagar ek baar !

2010 : A Flashback

Hey Readers !

Here we are again at the end of an eventful year. Recalling some memories from the past. This is entirely based on my opinion and readers' opinions may certainly differ. Feel free to add or suggest anything.



BEST Moment:
The XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 held at Delhi and its record medals won by India


WORST Moments:

• Air India Flight 812 overshoots the Mangalore International Airport runway killing 158 people

• Pune Bombing at German Bakery

• Gyaneshwari Express train derailment in West Bengal ought to have been carried out by Maoists

DEFINING Moments:

• India launches its 2011 biometric census, the largest in the world

• Volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajökull, an ice cap in Iceland, disrupts air traffic across northern and Western Europe
  

• The Wikileaks exposure

• 2G Spectrum Scam

• Shashi Tharoor resigning as Minister

BEST Film (Bollywood):
Dabangg



BEST Film (Hollywood):
The Social Network



BEST Movie Sequel:
Toy Story 3



BEST Actor:
Leonardo Di Caprio (Shutter Island and Inception)



BEST Director:
Christopher Nolan (Inception)



BEST Song:

• Airplanes (B.o.B.) -- (English)

• Naav (Udaan) -- (Hindi)

BEST Sportsperson:

• Sebastian Vettel (Formula 1 : Youngest F1 World Champion)

• Sushil Kumar (Wrestling : World Champion)

• Saina Nehwal (Badminton: 3 Super Series, CWG Gold, World No. 2)

• Sachin Tendulkar (Cricket: First man ever to score a 200 in an ODI)

EMERGING Sportspersons:
The 4x400 Indian Women's relay team clinching Gold at CWG and Asiad


BEST Sporting Moments:

• India crushing Pakistan 4-1 at the 2010 Men's Hockey World Cup

• Spain defeating Netherlands 1-0 in the finals of the Football World Cup 2010

• India at CWG 2010 Women's Discus 1-2-3

WORST Sporting Moment:
Spot-Fixing in Cricket


BEST TEAMS:

• Spanish Football Team (Football World Cup 2010 champions)

• Red Bull Racing (Formula 1: Driver's and Constructor's Title)

• Inter Milan under Jose Mourinho
  

BEST Indian ENTREPRENEUR:
Kumar Mangalam Birla



BEST Indian POLITICIAN:
Nitish Kumar (Pulling off a stunning electoral result in an underdeveloped state)



BEST in ENTERTAINMENT (Indian):
Vikramaditya Motwane (Director of Udaan)



CAR of the Year:
Bugatti Veyron



PERSON of the Year:
Julian Assange (Wikileaks Founder)



Cellphone of the Year:
iPhone 3GS



WORD of the Year:
Austerity



DISCOVERY of the Year:
Arsenic as a life form support.



The CHOSEN ONE of the Year:
Paul the 'Psychic' Octopus !



Phew ! Compiling this was tough !!!
Readers may differ in opinions and all such comments are welcome :)
See ya all in 2011 !!

Winter Break : Part I

Manipal - Mangalore - Chennai
10.12.2010

The day when Semester V officially ended. My exams had got over on the 8th itself, but I was waiting for my roomie to finish his exams, so we could leave on a legendary trip back home. His family had recently shifted to Gangtok, and so I had booked his ticket to Howrah. Anish, a Bosconian, would be accompanying us for the first time ever on our journey !

Last exam, Priyank had hardly studied anything, and instead of packing or studying, he had spent most of his time watching Coffee with Karan (or I think Koffee). Anyways, his exam ended at 5 in the evening, and he rushed to the room. We started packing everything in a haste. Literally, stuffing everything in the almirah. We had decided to meet at 6pm at TC. But obviously, time and tide waits for none, so we ended being late. After recharging Surdas' TATA Photon+, we reached TC at 6.30 only to find the Volvo full. So we decided to take the local bus.

It was drizzling and the weather was awesome. The bus started at almost 7pm, and the chilly breeze and the Kannada movie which they were showing in the bus was quite pleasant. The movie talked about a girl, a hero (his brother I think), and a villain. All kinds of animals were brought into it. Bullocks overturning bullock-carts, snakes killing the girl's father, and the lion who could be tamed so easily by the hero.


We reached Mangalore at 8.45pm and made our way to the Station, where the West Coast Express was standing on the platform waiting for us. Our coach was very far down the platform, and our coach was full of MITians. We settled down, used TATA Photon+ to update our Facebook status msg, and started playing FIFA after a while. I must admit I was delighted at winning a game against Priyank (I lost the series 1-4 though). We finally slept off after a family with quite a luggage barged into our coupe. Next day too we spent time playing Family Feud, FIFA and watching HIMYM on a friend's laptop.

The train arrived at Chennai Central at 3.15pm (No delay) and we had to wait for about 40 mins to keep the luggage in the cloak room. After keeping our luggage, we then argued with an auto wala to take us to Marina Beach. I was visiting Marina Beach for the first time after the Tsunami that tore apart the Bay of Bengal. We stayed there for a while, clicking photos and roaming around.

We then made our way to the Citi Centre, not far from the beach, where we refreshed ourselves, and roamed about the mall for 4 straight hours. We ate at the KFC and Pizza Hut and did some efficient window shopping. At about 9.30pm we reached the station, passing through Spencer's and Express Avenue. While seated in the station we spent time identifying logos and texts throughout the station. As soon as the platform announcement for Howrah Mail came, we collected our luggage from the cloak room, and made our way to platform number 8. The train finally left the next day at 0010 hrs (instead of 2340 hrs).


We met an awesome group of Biharis in our coupe, who were studying at JIPMER Medical College. Their stories were amazing. Time spent by like almost a whisker. We received lunch and dinner at Vizag and Bhubaneswar stations from Priyank's relatives. Home felt close. Next day we reached the Howrah station early at 0400 hrs. Anish dropped us at our home on way to his. Finally we had the comfort of home, the much awaited sleep that eluded us !

Winter Break : Part II was next.

Harry Potter 7.1

It's been 4 days since our classes got unofficially over, and we had been making plans to the Harry Potter 7.1 movie at Mangalore. If its Harry Potter, there's no stopping us. Call it kid-like, call it fantasy, call it childish, it is just Harry Potter, one of the best creations by any author.

Finally, after getting on a surprise Thursday chilly morning, I managed to wake up Rishabh and Priyank. Shramit who was already awake, got my msg sometime late, though he was ready. We had decided to catch the 0800 hrs Volvo to Mangalore. But our dear friend Samrat (Surdas) had challenged that we wouldn't even wake up. Beating him, we left for breakfast at Annapurna mess, and called up Shramit to reach KC immediately.

We managed to catch the 0830 hrs Volvo, and since end sems was round the corner, we had decided to spend the 1.30 hrs on bus studying something !! So each of us had a copy. None of us studied. All were too sleepy, and we dozed off. We reached Mangalore at 1015 hrs and rushed our way to Bharath Mall to get our Rs 80 tickets for the 1030 hrs show. We had done it !!!!!


The movie was pretty cool and it was a fantastic build up to Harry Potter 7.2 ! We got out and decided to storm Pizza Hut. The Pizzas were just amazingly awesome. I mean that. After a fantastic meal, we then caught the local bus to Manipal, and reached our hostel by 1630 hrs. After wasting the entire morning not studying (we do that everyday ;) ) we finally decided to study sometime.


A day full of excitement, soon to be followed by the gigantic end sem preparations. Phew ! It was one hell of a day !! Kudos to Priyank, Rishabh and Shramit for the trip, and to Samrat for challenging us ;)

Operation Black Tornado

Date: 26th November, 2008.
Location: 8th Block, Manipal.
Time: 11.00 PM


Me and my friends were preparing for our Sessional exams, when I received a call from a friend of mine, saying terrorists had attacked Mumbai. We all thought it was one of those Sessional rumours which we call RSS (Random Sessional S***) feeds, but as more and more inputs came in we realised it would be the blackest day for any Indian.

We stormed to the TV room at the top floor, where the Anna was watching some Kannada movie, flipped through the channels to CNN-IBN and looked at the horrifying Breaking News bar at the bottom of the screen. 'Mumbai Under Siege', 'Mumbai Attacked', 'Terrorists hold Mumbai hostage' flashed frequently. We were utterly shocked and speechless. None of us were uttering a single word.

As news kept coming in, on the locations of attacks, the number of terrorists and police forces trying to provide security, we started calling our dear ones in Mumbai. I called up my brother, and asked him where he was, who convinced me that he was safe and that the locations of attacks were far from his residence. One of my friend, whose family stays just beside the Taj, was relieved to hear his parents were safe, but were hearing constant gunshots and explosions.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, one of the busiest railway terminals in India, was one of the scene of ruthless attacks amongst, Leopold Cafe, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Cama Hospital (a women and children's hospital), Nariman House, the Metro Cinema, and a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College. Two of the ten terrorists who came through the waters into Mumbai, were at CST, and they indiscriminately opened firing at the passenger hall, killing more that 50 people. As it was the night time, long distance trains were scheduled to depart, and the station was full of people leaving and people who had come to see-off their relatives. One of the terrorist Ajmal Kasab, was captured on CCTV as well as on camera, who was later caught in an ambush by police personnel. Kasab and Khan were responsible for the death of police chief Hemant Karkare, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and ACP Ashok Kamte.

The Leopold Cafe famous for foreign tourists was one of the first sites to be attacked, where 10 people were killed. Two explosions in taxis killed 5 people. The Taj Mahal Hotel and Oberoi Trident,



both 5 star luxurious hotels, a place of noted dignitaries and known as the Gateway to India, was taken hostage by terrorists who fired random bombs and bullets indiscriminately. It was an uphill task for Black Cat Commandos, as they proceeded with Operation Black Tornado.

The Nariman House, is a Jewish center in Colaba where the terrorists had taken hostage a Jewish Couple, who were later murdered along with four others. The grandfather and the son of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg were rescued by a maid working there. Sensational images and videos kept pouring into through the news channels, which the terrorists used to their full advantage. NSG Commandos stormed through the building air-dropped into the roof and eliminated the
remaining terrorists with powerful explosions and snipers. A radio transmission from the handler to the attackers picked up this: "The life of a Jew is 50 times the worth a non-Jew".

By 27th Oberoi Trident and Nariman House had been cleared while the operation at the Taj continued till the morning of 28th, when the final three attackers were killed, and one of who was thrown out of the hotel.

Videos and images of this tragic attack at the most diverse city of this country were condemned and fury raged among each and every Indian. Everyone was feeling the same. It does leaves goosebumps even today, almost 2 years since the attack. Some lost their loved ones, some were relieved at the well being of their relatives.

When I went to Mumbai just three weeks after the attacks with my parents, we were moved and surprised by the indomitable spirit shown by Mumbaikars. I visited the Taj and Oberoi, which are now symbols of Mumbai's resilence, saw the shattered panes, looked at the immovable spirit of the crowd that goes into and comes out of CST and I just wondered, did the terrorists attack on our heritage or did they self-stab their own hearts.

26/11 has been one of the most tragic incidents in India. The aftermath of 26/11 produced "Force One", an anti-terror force and weaponry of Mumbai police have been upgraded. Security has been at an unprecedented high, but what the people of Mumbai showed was absolutely amazing. Mumbaikars came out in large numbers, formed a massive human chain symbolizing their fight against terrorism, the nation observed a 2 minutes silence, thousands of commuters rushing to their offices halted at CST for 2 minutes to pay respect to those affected by 26/11. We wore black bands to our college in memory of those who sacrificed for our country.

The spirit shown by Mumbaikars was simply unbelievable and unimaginably amazing. We must remember, but we must move on undeterred too. Perhaps the extraordinary story of 'Goli' may epitomize the spirit in which Mumbai and India observes this 26/11 anniversary.

The whole nation stopped for a moment, the whole nation was united for once, the whole nation prayed together for once, the whole nation shouted for once : "We will not go quietly into the night, we will not vanish without a fight, we are going to survive, we are going to live on, this day onwards we pledge to make India a real might, where might will reflect the strong undeterrable culture of humanity and sheer determinance to ward off the evil forces that try to penetrate into my motherland, Bharat."

Jai Hind.

TEDxManipal

TEDx Manipal, an independently organized TED event, was hosted by MIT on the 21st of September, 2010. Though it's been more than 2 months since, I'll try to brush up, whatever I remember from the event.

This year's inagural TEDx event featured eminent personalities such as Rashmi Bansal (founder of youth magazine JAM and author of Stay Hungry Stay Foolish), Rajiv Misra (chief security office at the Indian Railways) and Nakul Shenoy (a 'mentalist') among others.

The TEDxManipal was inspired by TED videos across the globe, and its licence was acquired by Rajeev Agarwal, Anshul Agarwal and Gaurav Dhir, current final year students at MIT, Manipal, thus the conference based on the theme inspired by the very own motto of Manipal University, 'Inspired by Life'.

I got a pass to attend Session III of TEDxManipal, and after hearing from others who attended the morning and afternoon session, it was sure to be a very eventful and productive evening in store. Nevertheless, the four speakers for this session were, Sundar Sarukkai, Somen Dawn, Prakash Shesh and Nakul Shenoy.

The event kicked off with the most viewed TED Video across the globe, as it had for other sessions. Then we were introduced to our first speaker, Mr. Sundar Sarukkai, who spoke on how Science and Religion is interconnected in this world. His belief was that the best way to understand science was to implement the basic nature of philosophy. Though his speech drew attention and provided to be beneficial, it did turn off the crowd momentarily, who then shouted and cheered (even whistled) at the next speaker, who hailed to be from MIT once upon a time, Somen Dawn.

After a brightful start to his speech, Dawn explained to us the motto behind the $35 Sakshat tablet, which is a project under Kapil Sibal, Union Minister HRD. He explains how this had been inspired by OLPC in the USA. After his innovative speech came the, perhaps, most humorous speeches of the day, by Mr. Prakash Shesh, who talked about how supersitions affect us in the real life, how the silliest of ideas are pre-inserted into our minds, thinking to believe if anything goes out of track is a symbol of bad luck. His powerful, yet humorous speech left us bewildered. He rhetorically put forward the notion that why we go clockwise round the temple, why never anticlockwise, why as college students, we hang on to that one 'lucky' pen, why we eat something sweet before going for an exam and many such examples. To be frank it was one of the best TED speeches I have heard till date!


After his amazing speech which lasted 18 minutes, not more or less, otherwise would have superstitously gone bad, came the 'mentalist' Mr. Nakul Shenoy. The magician performed a couple of tricks, one on-TEDx, one off-TEDx to demonstrate the power of magic. He called upon a couple of students from the crowd, and asked one of them to put a Rs 500 note in one of the three envelopes labelled 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Then he asked his friend to speak out a number and burnt the other two envelopes revealing the Rs 500 note within the last one. The crowd was almost at its feet, attentively noting each and every move of the magician. It was mind boggling.

The off-TEDx magic was when one the magician wrote down a place and a nickname, a couple of friends were thinking just by calling them to the stage and noting their facial reaction. It was awesome ! Post event, we had the informal interactive session, where I got a chance to meet, Rahul Roushan, editor of Faking News. I heard his speech was also amazing, and I just hope the videos of TEDxManipal are out soon and TEDxManipal 2.0 is not far away!

Inspiration is all around us, we just need to have the grasping abilities. An opportunity lost is never an opportunity wasted. It comes back always in some other form. We just need to open the right door at the right time. It is only then, when we are 'Inspired by Life' !

"You are the World Champion"

A champion is not one who leads throughout the race, but is the one who moves like a turtle and at the last moment leapfrogs at the finish to take victory. That's what the young German F1 driver Sebastian Vettel proved this season of racing. Vettel is at the moment, the youngest world champion, the sport has ever seen.

"You are the World Champion. Enjoy it. You are the man.", blurted out Christian Horner over the team radio, at Seb becoming the World Champion at the Yas Marina International Circuit.

Sebastian Vettel started off the Formula 1 2010 Season in a grand style, securing pole position at the first GP at Bahrain. However, a spark-plug failure dropped him down to the fourth place. Vettel had a similar fate in Australia where he spun off the track, after leading from pole. Things, finally turned around for him, when he secured the first position at the next race in Malaysia, where Red Bull finished 1-2.

Red Bull maintained a perfect record to the season with four out of four poles till then, when Vettel stormed to the pole position at China. But incessant rains, forced a change of strategy from the Red Bull pit garage, which led him to finish 6th on the grid.

Hamilton crashed at the penultimate lap, to handover a third place finish for Vettel at Spain, whose last laps were marred by brake problems.

The most awaited race Monaco had a 1-2 finish for the Red Bull, when Mark Webber finished ahead of Vettel. The Turkish Grand Prix was marred by a devastating move on teammate Webber, which eventually put him out of the race. Montreal saw him finish fourth, whereas the European Grand Prix was a consolatory finish to half the season when he led from pole to finish.

Silverstone brought in a controversial move by Red Bull, putting Webber's front wing on Vettel's car. But luck betrayed the young German, as he encountered a tyre puncture, and eventually finished 7th. The German Grand Prix was one of the closest poles where he qualified by 0.002 seconds faster, eventually finishing 3rd and third place at Hungary, due to a drive through penalty.


Belgium saw him out of the race after colliding with Button's car. He finished 4th at Monza after a similar problems likewise in Spain. The night race saw Seb finish second, while he stormed to victory at the Japanese Grand Prix. The inagural Korean GP was devastating for him, as he had to retire with an engine failure. At Brazil, Vettel took the lead ath the Senna S, and stormed to
victory. The last race was a flawless and perfect race at Abu Dhabi, where Sebastian Vettel was crowned the World Champion.

Vettel is often compared the legendary Michael Schumacher because of their same nationality and similar life backgrounds. His childhood heroes included the three Michael's : Michael Schumacher, Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan.

Never did Vettel lead the Driver's Championship this season, but came up with a stunning last race performance to gallop his way up the Hall Of Fame. A hero is born. Perhaps a new Michael Schumacher is born, but brace for it ...

... when Vettel shows his might at the Indian Grand Prix in October, 2011 !

Like it or not, Sebastian Vettel, is the Formula 1 World Champion 2010.

Red Bull : Gives you wings !!!