The VCR Era

At 12 AM, sleep tried to take over completely, but a hot cup of tea got me going. At 3 AM, it was twilight zone; I couldn’t tell whether I was awake or dreaming. By 7 AM, the show was over and I was all set for the bed. If you are thinking that this is a routine for an exam preparation, you couldn’t be more wrong. This is the routine that was practiced in many Indian households back in the 80s when the VCR was at the peak of its existence. This was the generation that waited patiently for Saptahiki on Friday to catch a glimpse of the Sunday movie. Then on Sunday evening, all roads would become deserted and everybody got tuned in to Doordarshan by 6PM. The movies ran by Indian standard time back then which means they never started on time and many a times one had to patiently tolerate the ‘ghadi’ which was an image put up to tune up the setup of your TV before the beginning of the movie.

With the arrival of VCR, this generation was thrust into a new era all of a sudden. Colored TVs were commonplace by then (except for may be Rawat house who waited for the Jains to upgrade who in turn got inspired by the Gulatis) and so were the video shacks that made tons of money renting the video cassettes. For households that didn’t have colored TVs, these fellas also offered those for rent, so often times when you would order a bunch of movies, a technician would arrive with a TV, VCR, wires and the cassettes and set everything up in front of an eager crowd.
Old Mitsubishi VCR (Taken from -http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcadimensia/4155861813/)

Before ordering the movies, all near ones and dear ones were called and invited for the show and they would arrive on time with their blankets and all. The furniture in the living room would then be moved away and mattreses would be laid out so everybody could sit comfortably and sleep in the middle of the night if they had to. The show mostly started at around 7-8PM when uncles also had come back home from office and could join the party. Overusage of cassettes often resulted in bad tapes and most of the prints were ended up being watched with tracking lines in the middle of the screen or sometimes with shaky picture. A total of about 4-5 movies were watched during one session from 7PM to 7AM straight.

With the coming of the cable TV in the late 80s, this practice became outdated though, and gone were the days of one movie a week as telecasted by DD or 5 movies a night as seen on VCR. Now you have multiple movies running simultaneously 24 hours a day, but the appreciation is lost. Besides the social interacton and the pleasure of watching movies in a group with people making funny comments is no longer there.

Breakdown of USSR- Dehradun's loss!!

At the peak of Indo-Soviet friendship, the Indian market was full of cheap Russian — or rather Soviet — books. A lot of them were propaganda material but there were also many interesting science and a few science-fiction titles.
They were published by Mir Publishers, Mir Publishers did a good job and subsidised the education of an entire generation, published under a special programme "to make the best Soviet textbooks available for Indian students" these were really good, Seems the breakdown of the soviet union hit them hard, but they are alive still, I read somewhere thay survived by merging of different publications under the name MIR.
I remember, the narrow metteled road before ELLORAS turning left to a big compound(I have not been there for years), a shoping complex with all signs of socialistic era built by some entrepreneur without any frills, it was two storied and I think towards last was APTECH centre where Alok got enamoured with his course coordinator…. I forget the name!!! There was this hall at start of the building where a SARDARJI used to load over his treasure of Soviet published books, I was big time into espionage thrillers from USA of Ludlum and others and always had the feeling that this guy must be a KGB agent, that never came out actually but still it was fun to roam around , check glossy covered books much better in finish than Indian books and highly cost effective as well.
Alok and me bought ‘Learn russian’ audio books which seemed bargain at that time, I never ever opened it, it still lies somewhere in house at doon , but I did buy Fyodor dostovesky’s ‘IDIOT’. It became a craze later on to go through ‘Problems in General Physics, By I.E. Irodov’ while preparing for Engg exams.
The USSR is no more..Sardar ji never saw again..building must have improved with Shining India..yes its true that era is gone!!!.

Crooning Monsieur Rawat

March evening of early ninties, to be precise 18 years back, a singer was born!! Well……not exactly.
My mom had gone through the pangs much-2 before infact almost two decades previous to this but augured into University It was the ‘freshers night’ coming with it exhilarating feeling of freedom, comaradarie, one ness and being grown up which can only be felt once, in fact few freshers were so overjoyed that by the time function started had passed out lock/stock after boozing in the midst of hostel, by the ditches, near shrubs, on the Auditorium door.
Although I have been a bacchus follower but had to keep myself in rein as I had been roped in to show case my talents and I still remember..the nervous feeling and welcoming tentative applause from the audiences, arena was pitch dark with spot light on me, I started ..a la Kishore Kumar….”Hum to mohhabat karega……” and than rhythm was set , fortnight of practice was paying off..raw talent was made presentable,audience were tapping and clapping with every stanza and than the Kishore style finale..i was treated to a thunderous standing ovation.
Later that night through boozards haze I remember people coming all through the party/celebrations coming and congratulating me..although I never nurtured this facet further but got many oppo..and the song which made me remains my forte all along.

'Rawats"

(Source..great web)

Rawat Rajputs are people who reside in Ajmer, Rajsamand, Bhilwara and Pali districts of Rajasthan as well as Kumaon and Garhwal of Uttarakhand. They claim their descent from Chauhan Rajputs belonging to Chauhan dynasty.
Rawat is a title used by Rajputs, in Uttarakhand (Popularly known as Garhwal & Kumaon) & some parts of Rajasthan. They are believed to be descendants of Chauhans. . There are some notable Rawats like Gorla Rawat, Bangari Rawat, Kunwar Rawat, Jirdhari Rawat and so on all of them are from Rajput families. Some of the Rawats belong to the Royal Rajput families & landlords also.
Some historians believe they are the direct descendents of Prithviraj Chauhans brother Hariraj who escaped to dense hilly and forest areas after the fall of the Chauhan empire in Ajmer and the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan. While others believe they are the descendents of Rao Lakhansi of Nadol branch of Chauhans. Two sons of Rao Lakhansi named Rao Anhal and Rao Anoop defeated the Gurjar king ruling in the Magra region and established their empire which was destabilised by the Mughals. They came to be known as Rawats after their two great warrior ancestors Narhaa Singh Rawat and Vihal Singh Rawat. They were awarded the titles of Rawat for their outstanding bravery with commanders Jaitaa and Kumpa in war against Sher Shah Suri by the ruler of Jodhpur Maldev and Vihalji for attacking the Iltutmish camp by the ruler of Mewar Rawal Jait Singh. Their descendents then came to be known as Rawats. It is believed they escaped from Ajmer to hilly and dense forest areas after defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan. With time some other branches of Rajputs also came to these hilly areas like the Rathore (Pokhariya) Gahlot (Gartund etc), Panwar (Dhodhing, Khiyawat etc) and mingled with the Chauhan Rawat Rajputs. Mainly they serve in the army. Because they developed their own culture there they are known as Rawat Rajputs. Their culture has been affected by the hard conditions they were living in, surrounded by hills and forests.
Some if not all of the Rawat Rajputs are believed to have migrated from the Indian plains during the Middle Ages. They still retain the name of their areas of origin: for instance, the 'Udaipur Patti' in Garhwal is a group of villages inhabited by people believed to have migrated from Udaipur in present-day Rajasthan.(Collected from wikipedia)

(Pahari miniature painting in National museum)

Little hands at work

Little Kabir has fascination for Cars, Trains and Planes. Recently, he took up water colors that he has been enjoying a lot. In this picture, we have a wooden model plane that he painted and assembled with little help from me. Quite a professional job, eh.

Pre Teen readings of Mr Rawat

You guys know I used to be a vociferous reader still am…, I don’t know how it started but from the time I remember was bookworm for stories and comics.
I started with CHAMPAKs and LOT POT(remember Motu-patlu /chacha choudhary/Pinki/Saboo) but one comic which was to catch my Fancy and quench my thirst for particular brand of humour was DIWANA Indian version of international satire magazine MAD.

Soon graduating from NANDAN I moved to more serious and reader’s digest like PARAG which was monthly Hindi children's magazine published from Delhi by The Times Group in the 1980s and 1990s, CHANDAMAMA was ever favorite with its southern favour and pictures drawn by Chitra and Shankar totally identifying with rural milieu and fiction.

All along comics continued of all hues ..one was MADHU MUSKAN a weekly comic magazine from the publisher of the popular film magazine 'Mayapuri'. Though not a comic in the strict literary sense, Madhu Muskan was more than a magazine, almost nearer to any comics published. 90% of the pages containes illustrated comical stories featuring various characters popular at the times. I had joined multiple comic rental shops by than and devoring comics by dozen a day.

I was doing adult stuff as well DHARMAYUG, SAPTHAIK HINDUSTAN I read all…one serious magazine was KADAMBINI and is still published by HT Media Ltd.

Just on threshold of teens my fancy became English fiction like THREE INVESTIGATORS and HARDY BOYS..simultaneous to ENID BLYTON..all the books came form kabadi bazaar..i hardly could have afforded new books.

Curiosity killed the cat..on sly MANOHAR KAHANIYAN was being ravished, I got big time into hindi pulp fiction likes of Ved parkash Sharma, Om parkash Sharma and others.

Thank god for this habit……. being a commodity trader I can identify with the saying “ The stock market may go up and down,the economy may go boom or bust, Words are a commodity in which there is neveranyslump."

‘Holi Aayi re’--- 70s movie shot in Belonwala- Doonga

There was a film that was released in 1970, which starred Balraj Sahni, Mala Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha, "Holi Aayee Re." It may have not done well when released but the story was based on a man and a woman who get involved in a moment of passion on "Holi," which leads the woman to become pregnant and leads to tragedy when the father of the girl kills the man and is arrested and the girl's mother is killed in an accident. However, the young girl tries to kill herself but then is saved and has to look after her young brother.

Mala Sinha’s co actor was some non entity called Parkash Thapa..

………..But more than that. An Entire song was picturised in scenic locale of my ‘Belonwala’ and ‘Doonga’ the village next door, there used to be a pine plantation over a small hillock now its replaced by Euclyptus trees(Signs of time) and our own ‘Choudhary’( Local landlord who lost lordship when we won independence and now live in famous ‘Dunga house’ hotel) I think he was called as told by Ma and Pa ‘Munna’ who played a small bit of a flute playing shepherd in that song, I think Choudhary had developed Bollywood fixation and lost great amount as one of the financier…anyhow its all hearsay but thing is Belonwala does qualify to be filmi location like Switzerland.

How to change Excel's CSV file delimiter

If you are performing a database bulk load and the data has been sent to you in excel sheet format, a well known technique is to first convert this data into a CSV file. Excel has in-built feature that does this conversion for you; it delimits fields with a comma so when the file is loaded, you can use the same delimiter to tell the database how to process the CSV file.

This technique almost always works seamlessly except when a field contains a comma as part of its value. In that case, the database loader gets confused and treats the comma as a field delimiter and you end up getting error on that particular row of data.

To avoid this issue, one can use another character than a comma to delimit the fields. That way an existing comma value doesn’t cause any confusion. However, this required additional task of opening up the CSV file in an editor and manually making the modifications that isn’t highly desirable.

Fortunately, comma as a default delimiter is not inbuilt in the Excel program; rather it’s a property at the OS level. All you have to do is modify that property from a comma (,) to let’s say a pipe (|), and bingo. The next time you create a CSV file, Excel automatically uses the pipe as the delimiter, and your converted file is all set for the database loader.

Use the steps below to modify the list delimiter:

Step 1 -> Launch Regional Settings from Control Panel

Step 2 -> Press the Customize button on the ‘Regional Options’ tab

Step 3 -> Set the List Separator and save your settings.

Delhi treasure hunt -Trip to National Museum/National Zoological gardens

Its been almost 5 years now when I have shifted base to NCR and comfort with Cosmo/Metro-National capital is coming albeit slowly, people spend entire lives and never explore the treasure trove Delhi is.I found to my surprise the Delhi Zoo surpasses Singapore zoo and night Safari despite their great packaging by miles in terms of habitat and natural surroundings the animals live in, same stands true for national museum which is not inferior by any standards to museum of Egypt etc in terms of treasure trove it holds.

(Natraj to start with)

(Museum is full such resplendent beauties)

(Coins from all era)

(Lost in maize--remember Enter the Dragon)

(History for you all duffers)

(Mask we wear everytime)

(Beware!!)

(Beware Twice !!!)

(all the kings man )

(Please bear with me)

(That's cool)


(I think Delhi Zoo is paradise for nseting /transitory/migatory birds)

( I was born in Africa)

Please come Again

Duggi….Teegi....Panji

(Photo courtesy National museum , New Delhi)
Any of you remember this currency, it was almost like age of innocence passing away when these faded away from memories, by the time were kindergarten kids most of these were only meant for leper- beggars sitting near Ghantaghar behind post office on the alley which came from Chukhu wala through kumhar mandi.

After this was era of Dassi which still fetched sticky sugar lollies till we were taking rides from city bus stand to school at RTO with bus passes made zillions of years back and conductor too in know of things.

Chavvni was a prized gift given by my Nani whenever we came back from summer vacations in Belonwala.

Attahni is not accepted any more by anyone, time is on when one rupee/two rupee coins are almost passé, our innocence was benchmarked to chavvni-attani , gen next will see fading away of INR 10 coin and will vouch for the era.

How to create a Windows shortcut bar

Desktop is an integral part of your work environment today. Whether it’s checking your corporate email or working on a spreadsheet, or just looking at your files, there can be 10s of tools and applications that you need to work with on an everyday basis. Wouldn’t it be convenient if this set of tools and applications that you need to launch multiple times during the day is available to you on a single shortcut bar? Once you have this bar setup, there is no need to ever go through the traditional Start -> Programs route. Each application is only a click away. Here are the instructions to setup such a shortcut bar on your desktop.

(Note: this example has been setup with Windows XP OS. If some of the instructions don’t work on your OS, you may have to figure it out for your windows version, for e.g., by searching on the internet.)

1) Create shortcuts for the tools and files that you want to add to your shortcut bar ->

A. To create a shortcut of an application that exists in your Start menu, navigate to the application, right click on it, select ‘Send To’ option followed by Desktop(create shortcut) option. This will send the shortcut to your desktop.

B. To create a shortcut of a file or document, locate the file in Windows Explorer, right click on it, select ‘Send To’ option followed by Desktop(create shortcut) option. Creating a shortcut will ensure that only a link to your file is created, and when you click on the shortcut, the file located in the original location gets launched and edited.

C. If there is an application that’s not available through the Start menu, then you can locate it using Windows explorer, once found, right click on it, select ‘Send To’ option followed by Desktop(create shortcut) option to create a link to the application on your desktop.

2) Set up a folder called ‘My Tools’ under the root directory of your local drive (c:\My Tools). This will house all your shortcuts.

3) Cut and paste all the shortcuts, that you created above from your desktop to ‘My Tools’ folder

4) Right click on your task bar (task bar shown below), and navigate to Toolbars->New Toolbar (Click on the image below)

5) In the ‘New Toolbar’ dialog box, browse to ‘My Tools’ folder, and click OK. ‘My Tools’ toolbar appears on your taskbar. (Click on the image below)

6) Right click on your task bar again, and make sure ‘Lock the Taskbar’ option is unchecked.

7) Minimize all the applications on your desktop so your desktop comes in the forefront.

8) Drag the ‘My Tools’ toolbar from your taskbar by holding the left mouse key, and release the key to drop the ‘My Tools’ toolbar on your desktop. This separates your custom toolbar from the taskbar. (Click on the image below)

9) Right click on the ‘My Tools’ toolbar and make sure the ‘Show Text’ option is unchecked, ‘Always on Top’ option is checked, and ‘View-> Small Icons’ option is checked.

10) Drag the toolbar by holding the title of the bar with left mouse key and drop it at the top of your screen. Once you do that the bar automatically takes horizontal shape. Readjust the width so the bar takes the least amount of real estate on your screen. (Click on the image below)

11) Once your toolbar is in place, adding new items to it is very easy, bring up your item either through Start menu or locate it in Windows explorer, drag and drop the item on the toolbar using the right mouse button (not left). Once dropped, choose the ‘Create Shortcuts here option to directly create a shortcut of your desired application on the toolbar.

12) And that’s it. You are all set. All this hardwork for the initial setup will payoff as you can launch any application by clicking the appropriate icon on the ‘My Tools’ shortcut bar sitting on the top of your screen.

13) If you like to change the icon of one your items, right click on the item within the shortcut bar, go to properties, and click on ‘Change Icon’ button to browse through the icons you have on your machine and select the one you want.

Flus Blues

It has to be flu i think. chills, muscle aches, dry cough. Hate being sick. Not able to sleep well. The worst of all children are suffering more than me. they are wanting to play with me but i am shooing them away. As usual, doctors are not for me. Its late anyways. I was reading somewhere that antivirals, the medicine for flu works only within the first 12-48 hours. Hope it's not H1N1. Anyways, even if it is I am already feeling much better today, the third day, so my body must be getting grip over the flu virus.

Manisha has taken over the household work as well as catering to childish demands. I do become a child when I get sick. I like to be pampered. That's the on;y good pat of getting sick I think. That you can be in bed and have everything brought to you if possible.

Disease makes you appreciate how lucky we are to be healthy most of the times. But eventually, you get well, you move on, you take good health and good life for granted and run after things that you don't have.

Happy Diwali

The month of Diwali has always been very special. This is when lots of festivities are taking place, and also the change is in the air. The summer is gone and new season and life are inviting us. People away from home surely miss being with family and friends and do the best they can to celebrate the spirits of Diwali. The primat focus for us in the US has been the temple. Here are some pics from Lemont temple here in the suburbs. The occasion is Dusshera. Lots of programs are going on at this time. Dusshera baazar is on where one can buy Indian stuff like clothes, jewellery, books, etc. Also, Ramleela is going on the whole day as well. We missed it this time, though, because we got too busy eating the good dosa. All this is followed by phuljharis. It was misty this time, and in the quiet of the temple campus, kids had a ball feeling the heat of the phuljharis is the deeping cold with bollywood songs providing the perfect backdrop. One almost felt one was a hill station thanks to the foggy and misty evening.


The phuljhari play was followed by Bhagwan Ram's idol brought out.

After the puja, were the spectacular fireworks. Kabir clung to me while Krishi kept looking asking us to bring it to an end. The favorite of all was the stengun like shot firing that ended the display in style.

Once all this was done, Rawana who was tied to the ground all this while was set ablaze smbolizing the end of all evil.
The celebration continued into Diwali. Being a weekend, it gave us a good full day to celebrate. The day started with cleaning of the house, and also the Buddha idol that I had bought several years ago from India (during the quest for hukka). The idol had gathered dust for a while and was surely due for cleansing. In the evening we went to Toysrus and got the kids some new toys. That was followed by puja; kids also participated and spoke prayers in zibberish. Then they did the phulzaris that we had got from the temple during Dushhera. Today we plan to go to temple and then a Diwali gettogether at the friends place. Wishing everybody happy diwali and a great year ahead.

Tentative steps- First canvas by an obscure 9 year old artist.

First canvas prepared by Joshita, it was under supervision of teacher,

Krishna she prepared on her initiative to be gifted to her Grandmother in Doon.

Latest one ongoing.

Will keep you posted.

State of Latrine

Disclaimer: This article may be distasteful for some. Proceed with caution. Also, this is a humorous take on this rather avoided topic based on writers own experiences and is not based on any kind of research.

Does the title repulse you? What if I say bathroom or rest room. Does that make it better? What's the deal with the most primitive of human activities besides eating (assuming eating came first). We are supposed to be living in advanced times, with most of the basic day-to-day problems solved. Yet, more advanced the potty techniques - more problematic they seem. If we talk of west, they do seem to have mastered the initial part, where one can comfortably rest one's butt on a seat, unlike east, where your rears are hanging in mid-air putting all the load on the knees, resulting in the highest rate of knee arthritis in India, but the cleaning technique still remains problematic. First there is excessive use of paper, adding to the global warming problem (even though west will always blame east for this issue); next, dry paper causing irritation is always on your mind, and last but not least, one never knows, whether one is completely clean, that feeling of satisfaction that only touch of bare hand can provide. Besides, there is also an issue, especially, in public places, that one is kind of sitting on somebody else's buttprints, which makes it so unhygienic.

Eastern ways have its own share of problems, as well. Firstly, of course, the awkward sitting posture akin to a bird resting on a tree branch; secondly the terror of wetting oneself is always there, especially, if one is going through stomach problems, and last but last but not least, the problem of cleaning that remains highly unhygienic.

Another major problem is that of how to design the paikhana (shouldn't have rhymed with maikhana). In the east, they make it as a closed room, so one can go behind shut doors and perform this ritual in private, so nobody can know what one is doing and how, but that still leaves the problem of hard to breathe space left behind by the last user leaving the room unusable for the next in line, esp in public toilets during morning hours. West found a solution to this in the form of open spaces where one is only surrounded by four half walls, leaving it open from top and bottom. This makes the area reusable immediately after use, nevertheless making it difficult to enter the 'the bathroom, itself, because the air wasn't contained to a single room in the first place. Also, this makes going very difficult, as one has to be very careful evacuating, and has to ensure one either does it very carefully not to make too much noise, or time it with some other sound, like when somebody else is flushing another toilet, to let it go full steam. But of course if one likes to always make a bold statement, that's not an issue.

A third alternate has already been developed, that at least addresses the cleaning part, and has been lately gaining popularity, albeit, slowly. It involves neither using paper nor hands; rather this technique utilizes the seating arrangement of the west, and water-cleaning of the east. It consists of a special water fountain built at the edge of the seat that can be operated manually at the time of need. Once the fountain starts, one has to position their cheeks so water hits at the right angle, washing you without having to touch. Even this technique has its difficulties though. It's not uncommon for people to misposition and spill the water all over, and then once again how do you know when to stop cleaning.

The simple fact is even with millions of years of in-habitation on this planet, we still don't have a satisfactory ablution technique that can be solidified in gold and that makes it an inviting experience. It has remained, so far, a necessary evil in most people's lives.

Doon Bakeris

Not a complete list or anything, but here are just some of the munchies I enjoyed growing up ->

Grand Bakers: Round cookies with a swirl. These were just amazing: one of my most favorites. These were round, crispy cookies full of life. Put one in your mouth and forget about the worries of life for a while.

Sardarji's bakery on Tilak Road: I don't remember the name of the bakery. It didn't even have one, I think. They were popular for eggless bisuits. During our stay near Tilak road, almost every couple of months, we would carry our canister of flour to him, and he would bake them fresh with you dropping your saliva all over you while watching the whole operation. By the time the canister reached home, I would have finished 1/4th of it.

Standard bakery, Chakrata road: The one at the intersectin of Chakrata road and tilak road remained a favorite past time for a long time. Pineapple pastries were the best. They were so soft and creamy, that you could swallow without chewing on them. I live in the land of cakes and pastries now, but till date, I have not been able to find a replacement, here.

Ellora's: My exposure to this one remained limited, but this one is prob the oldest and the most popular for the Rajpur road crowd. The cakes are the best here. During Manisha's birthday a few
years ago, this is where I picked the cake from, and it was a real treat.

Sunrise bakers, Ghosi gali: Any doon kid would not gulp his morning glass of milk down without dipping a rusk in from this shop. If you want to pick Doon's famous rusk, this is the shop. We have tried several imitations in the US, but none is close.

Prabhat cinema canteen: This is where I picked up a love for patties. Almost, every day during our evening strolls, we stopped by to eat a couple, only to later have a hard time eating dinner at home on full stomach.

Beatles in Dehradun

http://sg.video.yahoo.com/watch/138006/1336738

Above is the link for ' Dehradun....Dehradun'

The Beatles,India was their most creative period. When they were in Rishikesh/Dehradun for several weeks in February, March and April of 1968 (They stayed at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's spiritual centre, Rishikesh), they wrote between 23 and 48 songs, 17 of which were included in their White Album, one of their best known.

In that period the Beatles made one song on Dehradun , which never got released. This song is treated as a rare collection on the Beatles. Its video has been released on the occasion of 1st Asian Mayors’ Conference, held at Dehradun, Uttaranchal, India, from Nov 26 – 28 2006, which shows clips of Dehradun our home town and essence of this blog.

Black alphabet equals a buffalo.....

(Courtesy my Colleague Anirudh who too must be courtesing some genius crackpot on net who has the time to draw such innovation)

Yamuna bridge near Kempty…

This place in ‘Jaunsar Bhabhar’(U’ll see multiple entiries for same if you are into googling, it’s a place inhabited by beautiful truly Aryan pedigree who are carrying forward the sword of Pandavs and Kaurvas and with scheduled privalage bestowed upon by GOI are doing wonders in public life..adjacent to this is Jaunpur(Nainbagh) area infamous more due to ignorance with experts calling it place of reverse ‘Polygamy’…its all history and do not try to look too deep into it….by the way Jasu Rana or Jaspal Rana the famous shooter comes from this place)

If u drive down from Kempty falls which does not at all hold any charm of yesteryear anymore and is becoming the only solace for redundant technologies like ‘Air troliies’ which has been put up , I rode on it alongwith Bijal, Joshita and Seema on this weekend trip and made a quick exit soonest from a place which is pale shadow of its former self.

Driving from Kempty towards Vikasnagar taking the yamnotri highway, Yamuna at its best with swirling waters is view to behold, Nomadic muslim Gujar making their annual treks towards Shivalik ranges are a companion throughout.
I have this trip many a times
· With Pintoo , Rajesh Gupta and Sharad Gupta way back in mid ninties.
· With Pintoo couple of times later.
· With Kapil Manwal in 2003.
All the times its been bikes and scooters and drive always a thrill, I decided to ride my ‘Zen Estillo’ but making sure many a times that route was allright hoping still that modern and rising India has not taken anything away from adventures of yore.
I was rewarded by a nature made waterfall hundered times better than any ‘Kempty falls’.

I wanted my kids to savour this ride and certainly think it was so, l look forward to further journies this path with many a friends in years to come.

Amen!!!