![Clouds from [tag]Kedar Kantha[/tag] peak](http://priyank.com/images/weblog/2007/2007-09-26_kk-fulres.jpg)
Sun rays piercing through a blanket of clouds. Looks like a spaceship to me!
Picture taken: May 2005, about 13,000ft from the base of Kedar Kantha peak. Here is the travelogue of my [tag]Har-Ki-Doon[/tag] trek. The weather was changing so rapidly that within 30 minutes we had a hail shower, bright sunlight and then a wet spell. Needless to say, it was chilly, but unbelievably beautiful outside.
A long walk
Picture taken: May 2005, about 10,000ft in Garhwal Himalayas. Here is the travelogue of my trip.
One of the interesting things about high altitude camping is the unique taste of the food. Above the tree line, water becomes more-or-less tasteless. Since Indian cooking involves generous use of water (from stewing vegetables to preparing dough), food cooked here does tastes funny. जेवणात चव उतरत नाही (the taste doesn’t sink into the food). Even before you hit the tree-line, cooking yummy food becomes increasingly difficult.
There are other operational issues:
- Due to low atmospheric pressure, boiling point of water reduces. So, water boils at a much lower temperature, for example, at the place where this picture was taken the BP would be approximately 90° (Rambodoc would say: “Its cool to boil water”)
- The only source of ignition is firewood. The three basic factors required for a fire are – (1) source of ignition, (2) Oxygen and (3) heat. The last two being less available, it takes long time to light a fire.
- More water needs to be used to compensate faster losses (moisture in the air is very low).
- Finally, food needs to be cooked for a longer time.
Why??
Consider boiling an egg. In the plains, water boils at 100° and it takes 5 minutes for an egg to boil (assume). At 10,000 ft however, water boils at 90°, and in order to equalize the heat (calories) gained by the egg, it has to absorb heat for a longer time. The cooks that I spoke to told me that it takes 25 minutes to boil one egg (boy! thats a hard-shelled egg).
Turning up heat will not make a difference. Figure out why 
Baking food needs even more care, such as leavening gases in breads and cakes expand more, or an extra egg may be required to enhance bonding and strength. I have no knowledge about cooking meat though.
Can I cook the same taste food somewhere else? I tried using Distilled water once, but thats just one factor. Perhaps in a laboratory simulation, cooking few grams of high-altitude tasting food would be possible!
Ok, this isn’t about the Bigul (adjacent picture) that is played during army parades, I’m talking about Bagels – the donut shaped bakery products hugely popular in Europe and America.
Until today morning, I hadn’t eaten a bagel (I was a Bagel-virgin). I am generally fascinated by bakery products – cookies, muffins, cakes etc. There was this Bagel shop I passed by every morning and naturally I got attracted to it.
Previous week:
Toronto is usually laid back except for the morning rush hour which is very Mumbai style. So the maximum time I take to zoom past the shop was 3.2 seconds, grossly insufficient to see what was inside. Determined to investigate, last week I paused in front of it just to get a better look
“Hey there, good morning”, yelled the lady behind the counter in a machine-like tone.
“I’m just looking”, I said defensively. (Somehow I feed odd to browse or window shop)
She nodded and I started checking out. The smell was good (I’m talking about the shop, not the lady). There were round bread-like donut type objects of different shapes and colors. I looked at the price – “Single Bagel – $ 0.85.” Was it that cheap? Awesome!
Today morning:
Incidentally I woke up late today and couldn’t afford to eat breakfast. So I went to the shop and asked for a bagel.
“Bagel? Sure, what kind?” the lady said (another one today, this one had a thick Turkish accent)
“Ugh… any kind” I looked around clueless.
She simply stared at me.
“Raisin Cinnamon” I quipped (I am attracted to both).
Then she asked me something that I didn’t understand. I asked her to repeat twice. Finally she went to a toasting machine and pointed at it:
“Bagel Toast or no Toast”
“Aha! Yes Toast please” I was satisfied. She let out a grunt (probably thinking – ‘these, foreigners… can’t they learn anything before coming here?!’)
Then there was this Chinese girl in the subsequent counter. She was saying something which I didn’t understand so I presumed it was for someone else and I conveniently ignored her. After about a minute of shouting and yelling with gestures, I figured out she was indeed talking to me.
“What toppings?” (totally different accent)
I gave her the most puzzled look I ever sported. I thought a bagel was something like a cake or a muffin.
Re-framed.
“umm.. anything…”, I looked around to find an array of meat boxes and some green stuff in a corner, “Anything veggie please” (I had no intent of eating raw meat)
“Ok Lettuce? Tomato? Cucumber? What else?”
“Olives, Pickles, cheese – no not the slices, give me this shredded one” I said. This was getting confusing. What exactly was a bagel? a sandwich?
“And honey-mustard sauce, salt and pepper” I spoke like an expert.
“Here you go” she handed me a neatly wrapped pack
I proceeded to pay, but it was at the other end of the shop attended by a huge African girl.
The receipt read $4.10
“WHAT!!??” That was the scream inside my head. Thankfully I stopped converting everything to Rupees, else I’d have fainted. Externally, I just smiled at her while swearing never to come here again.
“No card, only cash” she said pointing to some obscure note on the counter. (She reminded me of Hidimba)
I paid, grabbed the change and escaped back into the crowd. Phew!
The first thing I did at work was to read what a Bagel was.
Wikipedia says: “A bagel is a bread product traditionally made of yeasted wheat dough in the form of a roughly hand-sized ring which is boiled in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior. Bagels are distinct from the similarly shaped doughnuts and from the similarly textured bialys, primarily because of the cooking method amongst other differences.”
You may want to read the the (w)hole story, or bake one yourselves.
PS: This story is so unlike me. I generally don’t do anything unplanned, unresearched.
It was Maverick who tagged me and here I go:
Rules:
1. Name the person with link who tagged you.
2. Complete the questionnaire without changing the questions.
3. Tag 6 or more people.
Lets start:
Q1. Are you happy/ satisfied with your blog, with its content and look?
Blog: Well. Considering the insignificant amount of time I spend on the verb called blogging, I must say I’m pretty satisfied. The idea of banging the keyboard churning out more clutter to the already overcrowded in cyberspace and expecting it to be read by strangers is funny.
Content: I know that I don’t have anything specific on my blog to offer. Marketing theories suggest that the customer (the reader in this case) should be the focus of everything… BUT I’m shamelessly self obsessed 
Look: Yea! I LOVE this look. I’m all with straight line designs, bright colors and stuff (next post). I also love the stuff behind the scene, i.e. the code that I so passionately edited. Ok I should stop ranting more. PS: Checkout the themes – Agni and Prithvi. I’m making Jal and Aakash too.
Q2. Does your family know about your blog?
Yes sure they know. My mom dad read it once a couple of months and leave comments. My other relatives have either read it and have appreciated, or have concluded that I’m a nut. I do try to remind them once in a while by uploading pictures on my site and sending them a link 
Q3. Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or you just consider it as a private thing?
Nah… I flaunt my blog every time I can! Actually not the blog per se, but the website itself. Link to my personal website is always a part of my e-mail signature. Not many people have/had their own domain names, so sometimes I get “wow your own domain?”…
Q4. Did blogs cause positive changes in your thoughts?
Well, I don’t know about change in thoughts, but it does add different perspectives. I swore I’d never name anyone, but here it goes anyway: I eagerly await Mahendra’s new posts, they are always on diverse topics and well researched. Nita writes amazing stuff about contemporary topics that have an India angle (which I miss). Then I see Krish Ashok doing Jalsa showing Jilpa (I still need to recollect his definitions) and Cuckoo with something unusual and inspiring (except the poetry which I never understand). Nothing is as humorous as watching Rambodoc twist words and phrases. Now that I miss Himalayas, I see it through Mridula’s travel tales (poke: Spiti travelog is OVERDUE…). Gauri’s photos are always inspirational to my mediocre photography skills. Jerry feeds me with heavy objectivist philosophy. Arun is one Carnatak music guru. Oemar’s musings are random enough, but will make you pause and think. I must mention David’s and Paul’s blog factories that dispense global content (a pace I struggle to keep up with).
(See, I’m sure I missed many others. Thats why I was against writing names…)
If someone was curious enough to dig into the archives (no idea why would anyone do that), they’d find the phenomenal evolution that I have undergone since this And reading others’ stuff has got a lot to do with it.
Q5. Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or you love to go and discover more by yourself?
Apart from visiting the blogs of people who comment, I actively try to discover new ones.
If I put everything in a graphical form, I think that blogosphere is like a circular chain of chains. People have blog friends, those friends have their own friends, and so on. Its so interesting!
Q6. What does visitors counter mean to you? Do you care about putting it in your blog?
There were zooming numbers sometime back. But now I don’t trust the stats much. A conservative estimate suggests that 20% of my visitors are spammers. Then there are others who arrive here googling by mistake. Stats don’t matter (this phrase sounds familiar ).
Q7. Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?
Nah. I did that once upon a time long long ago. It doesn’t work. Most people have a picture these days anyway, some don’t. And for valid safety reasons.
Q8. Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?
For me? yes for sure. Once I launched a scathing attack on a bank for using fraudulent tactics and it got things fixed for me
For society? ditto.
I believe everyone should have a blog.
Q9. Do you think that bloggers’ society is isolated from real world or interacts with events?
Bloggers society? whats that? If it means the virtual sphere called blogosphere, then I can just laugh here
Q10. Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it’s a normal thing?
I get a kick out of criticism. Although overall I tend to avoid interpersonal conflicts.
Q11. Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?
No opinion yet.
Q12. Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?
Nope, it was expected (and I’m not being judgemental).
Q13. Did you think about what will happen to your blog after you die?
Those who know me also know that I plan for all situations. I’m the Hari Seldon of this world my little room.
Q14. What do you like to hear? What’s the song you might like to put a link to, in your blog?
Usually I listen to Indian classical. Either that or soft rock and soul music. I don’t wanna put any link in my blog though. (This is a funny question!)
Who am I tagging?
Well nobody. Are there any volunteers?
I am dressed as a soldier and I’m fighting a war against terrorists. I can see typical scenes of wars that are shown in movies- few soldiers firing from behind their bunks, camouflaged with black stripes on face, leaves attached to their green uniforms, lot of dust, chaos and noise.
I’m a very good army man, perhaps a specialist hired on contract for this particular operation. However, I notice a particular trend in my style. I seem to shoot only at opponents who are wearing hand gloves. Woollen hand gloves in particular. This habit doesn’t bother me, and it looks like I have followed this trend for years.
Now I’m shooting the terrorists and moving ahead, and suddenly their leader stands facing me. We look into each others’ eye and I grin. This is going to be my best shot. As I position my gun, ready to shoot, suddenly I notice that he is not wearing any hand gloves. I am extremely disappointed! I get panicked and simply don’t know what to do. I can’t shoot a man not wearing gloves!
End of scene.
In next scene, I’m at a bar, drinking with someone who looks like my good friend. Next moment, I notice that he is none other than the dreaded criminal whom I pardoned and made friendship with. I am absconding from my duty and my seniors are furious about it.
Its some special day (maybe his birthday), and I present my new friend with a gift (can you guess what it is?)
A brand new set of hand gloves.
He is happy to receive a gift.
He puts them on instantly.
And then, I shoot him. I still remember the expressions on his face- shocked with disbelief.
- – -
I woke up after this happened and couldn’t sleep that night. I kept thinking about it for over a week…
Note: This is not what it might sound like. I urge you to continue reading
- – -
![[tag]Invisible man[/tag]](http://priyank.com/images/weblog/2007/2008-09-05_invisible-man.jpg)
They were dating for about three months now. It was only today that they decided to move their relationship ahead and have [tag]sex[/tag]. She arrived at his apartment and they started kissing. She sat on the bed while he was standing in front of her, bending down to kiss her tender lips. His torso was supported by his hands resting on the bed. His palms adjacent to her thighs gripped the sheets firmly. For a brief moment they stopped kissing and she looked at his eyes intently. She was rubbing her hand on his forearms which were covered by his pink formal shirt. The guy was wearing gloves and was virtually covered from top to bottom (weird). He started unbuttoning his shirt while they still kissed with their eyes shut. The next moment she opened her eyes and looked at her right hand which was still caressing his left forearm, now supposedly naked.
- – -
She screams.
The guy had removed his shirt and she expected to see him shirtless. Instead, she couldn’t see him at all…. He was invisible!
‘Invisible!’ she thinks to herself and freaks out.
“What the f—”, she says.
The man replies with an naughty grin, “Yeah, so I am invisible”
![Building in my [tag]dream[/tag]](http://priyank.com/images/weblog/2007/2008-09-05_building.jpg)
She scrambles to get away from him, he chases her.
The apartment is quite high, perhaps on 25th floor of the building. It is a huge studio apartment with the street facing side having a full glass wall. Had the glass been normal, people outside or on the street could have been able to see inside the apartment. But this glass had unidirectional transparency. His washroom seemed like a block protruding out of his studio. Again, it was a glass box. From the street, the building looked like a huge glass wall, with just one glass block standing out from it, from the 25th floor.
She ran into the washroom and bolted the door firmly from inside. He was banging on the door saying something incomprehensible. She looked around the bathroom to find something useful. She found a gas lighter. It looks like a gun, except that it triggers a flame instead of a bullet. (I’ve seen people light candles with it). She opens the glass window and screams, but being at this height makes her screams meaningless.
She observes that there is a red coloured cylindrical hoarding hanging from the washroom window. She finds some inflammable liquid in the bathroom throws some of it on the cloth hoarding and ignites it with the lighter. Clearly, she is trying to attract attention, but her efforts still go in vain.
Then, she points the lighter to a smoke detector and instantly the apartment starts blaring with the fire alarm. She is certain that authorities will arrive there soon. Water starts spraying from the automatic showers and this douses the flame generating capability of the lighter permanently. (Wonder why) She is shocked and doesn’t know what to do.
- – -
That’s it. I wake up all sweaty and confused.
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