School Memories-1: VD-Vision Test

This Class-X snap from Kunal got back some fond school time memories.....
Just remembered an incident that happened when i was in school(std 10 maybe i dont remember)

I had a really strict, smart as hell teacher named VD Vargese(Bottom Center next the brother in white) as my class teacher.

On the 1st day of class I came in late to find a seat on the last bench... i cudnt see from there... so asked VD if i cud shift ahead....

Our Champ VD goes to the board Rubs off everything and tells me to read whats on the board...which is blank!!

i told him its blank...
VD says "annachhi you can see whatever i can see from here... so sit down"

For our punishment he used to tell us to stand with our BAGS on our Head- which he called "Zindagi ka BOJ" sir par... he was a millitary man with a red eye and an eye for perfection too

hope VD and all my teachers are doing well in life... hope i get to meet some on Orkut ;-)

Panther Creek Trail, Ga

Dunno why its called by this name but who cares....
Company: Sydney, Shelly, Bryn, Toasty, Gabby
this trail starts off and passes under 100 ft width of highway and then its pure adventure.... the trail itself isnt so steep both ways but its build mostly along the panther creek so takes wierd levels of difficulty if too wet...
Oh btw toasty and gabby are shelly and bryrnt's she dogs... gabby is a tiny jack russel cross ...and toasty is a big dog...
toasty would climb the slopes and get into the creek and do crazy stuff and little gabb would follow her ... and get stuck ...and would look at u with "oh my god... what have i done" kind of a look... but wud never give up chasing toasty....
which is when i realized how much the pet dogs miss being free...
once when gabby was stuck..toasty went up to guide her back to the trail... that was a very nice gesture and at other times toasty wud grab gabby by her neck and bully her... all so human .... it was nice to note how they behave when we let them free

and there was river dancing, sydney-shelly's wresling, wonderful strangers and their dogs and hikers with cruches.... man it was quite interesting all the way...then finally after 2 hours we reached Mill Shoals Falls (below).
The water was damn cold ... we ate some stuff and headed back..reaching just in time b4 sunset

I liked this trail for its natural settings... most of the trail was made because of natural ridges along the hill and it had loads of stuff like huge vertical drop offs, trees fallen across the stream , trees blocking the trail ... strange mix of trees with leaves on one side of the creek and trees stripped of leaves on the other side.... but sadly no birds/ animals/ reptiles/insects

If u wanna try it out : http://georgiatrails.com/trails/panthercr.html

re-CYCLE

When I was thinking of buying a cycle cuz I like cycling and had lost my previous bike, I noticed Amits cycle which was lying in our back yard with a torn - water soaked - seat, flat distorted tyre, rusted chain, peeling paint and almost no gears ....
I started with filling up the tyre and putting back the chain.... dusted off the dirt and wow... the cycle still had some life in it... it had Shimano gears with a broken string.... so took it to my lab , get the rear gear fixed, painted it and stuck a fire ball sticker on it..... god knows how old....but sturdy as a new one with the Shimano gears living upto its reputation and the break pads though brittle, still werent so bad....

I had been seeing this rather badly broken, trashed NEW bike on the way home...so I took off the handle, the nice cuissioned seat from it and the break pads and put them on my bike... and POOF!!!... My very own no cost re-CYCLED Cycle...

There are always cycles that Money can buy...
But the feeling of giving a cycle a new life ..Priceless !! ;-)

Wild Wild NC Trip

click on the frog and it will turn into a Princess
Left Durham, NC at 12:30 PM;Brijesh, Ninad and Me...Reached Raven Rock State Park at 3:30

Started along the Campbell Creek Loop trail : Approx 5 mile moderate Trail.We saw a Frog, Brijesh caught 2 baby frogs. One still had its tail part. They were damn cute...

Then we saw this Black Forrest butterfly(our name for it was a black blue design..man it was pretty cool) It flapped its wings slowly but smoothly...it was pretty Hypnotic:)
The we were talking about snakes and within 4-5 minutes, we see a Green Tree snake crossing our trail....We played around with it a bit (see snaps..its pretty neat)...went ahead...ventured into a region which was termed as "NOT A TRAIL" just to see if we see a water fall... then realised we werent a "movie hero" to fight bears with a stick that we carried...

so returned back to the trail. But we spotted foot prints of Racoons .Then we reached the Lanier Falls- spent some time crossed over to a rock overlookin the swift flowing River Cape Fear-Pretty scary huh..:)... yup its a highway for bears to go from one place to another.... Heres where is Lanier Falls. Wher we spent some time in and around water...felt better after the sticky trail... This river is pretty rich with fishes like Lagremouth Bass, warmouth, bluegill, catish, American Eel. We werent prepared for any water stuff sadly...but no regrets... :)

Then we headed back home and it was getting really dark by now. About 7:30 and we were about 2 miles from the trail end.
Now this part is crazy: A FLY circled the leader amongst us three. Who ever would lead the fly would circle that guy. And it wasnt just for a few minutes. It followed us till we entered our Truck. We switched leading the trail and it would hop over to the leader of the trail..... So we named it Leader Lover Fly :)
Then at about 8:00 we finally came across the Bridge which we could recognise. A sure sigh of relief!!!! So named it Bridge of Good Hope..Then it was a 5 hour straight drive back home
Do take a look at the snaps and the website too if you wanna take a dip into the wild side of youself :)
Snaps: http://community.webshots.com/photo/384556894/384574907XjhFKF
Website: www.ncsparks.net/raro.html

Destination H2O

had a crazy weekend and did something worth a blog ..:)..read on n have fun...

Some snaps from our boating laking and tubing -- freak out day at LakeKeowee ... http://community.webshots.com/user/iy_vikram... bout the stuff we did....
The water: was pretty WARM because of the nuclear reactor near by usingthe water to cool off their reactor chamber... just perfect for watterhogs like us..
The fishes : see for your self..;) they were pretty smart... we fed 4 feetlong fishes at the shore and thought wed get bigger ones in the lake tofish... cuz who the hell wud fish at the shores ....and in the lake , there were none... they have evolved into staying in nonfishing grounds i guess...;)
The people... just 3 of the 11 were proficient in swimming..but we got everybody in the middle of the lake... it was good...ofcoursewe had life jackets and all the safety crap...
Tubing: u have to sit in a tube and ud be dragged by the motor boat... itsfun when the tube topples (thanks to ur friends..;) ) and if u just rideits lotsof water speen and a good bit of exercise for your....nevermind...;)
Men and Directions: We got lost finding a water fall somewhere upstream... atleast10 times... thanks to human magnetic compasses on the boat confidentlytelling us the way... (which was all of us)
in all we drank a lottof water ... and i like most had the best possible outing... and to top it : all this just for $28

if you wanna go have some fun and are near Clemson,SC, visit Lake Keowee Marina