Naadodi

A new Curd-rice kayaker

2009-06-02T13:50:00.013-04:00

..where there is neither curd-rice, nor kayaking. and our valiant protoganists are set upon by wild-animals and come through unscathed...

Frequent readers of this blog (all the two of you) would know that on occasion, I do enjoy a bit of kayaking and camping. All of my kayak-camping has happened on the Delaware river. It's not an accident. It's well-served by canoe outfitters, the water is not risky or high, paddle-in campsites are easily available and it's not too far.

S. had been kayaking once before, never been camping or canoeing. So, it was with a mixture of anticipation and 'I hope this dude knows what the hell is doing' that she agreed to the plan.

We got to the outfitter's only at 4pm, having decided to go camping at 12:30, and with a brief detour to get some frozen parathas and chutney for dinner. It was decided to do the 16 mile trip from the Bushkill access to the Delaware Water Gap. We put in at 5:00 pm.

It was a pleasant evening. The river was high and somewhat fast, so we didn't have to paddle too hard. The campsites came on pretty fast, in less than an hour. We pulled in to a camp site and setup camp in an hour or so, while it was still light. This is something of a record for me, thus far having setup a tent only after the sun had gone down completely. Somehow, I always seem to be late getting to the campsites :) We hauled the canoe up the somewhat steep bank just in case the river rose at night and took the canoe with it.

Made chai, Setup the tent, collected some wood, got a fire going and had dinner (parathas and coriander chutney) by 9. Turned in by 10. Something about the cold (it had turned much colder than the balmy 75, probably down to 50-45) that makes you want to curl up and go to sleep. Made sure what remained of our food (fruits) was in the canoe, which was across the fire from us.

I was woken up maybe around 1 am by S., with a whispered 'hey there's something out there'. Sure enough, there was the distinct sound of something rustling through the plastic cover in the canoe. Hmm. Discretion being the better part of valour, and cowardliness the better part of discretion and we decided not to challenge this interloper to our campsite. We couldn't quite make out what it was, and it didn't really sound like a big animal. So, we figured, if it wanted some fruits, hey, athithi devo bhava and all that sort of thing. The sounds stopped after a few minutes. Then, much later, around daybreak, there was the sound of deer walking around the campsite. We woke up in the morning to find deer hoofprints around the campsite, I could see where it had bedded down for the night. The deer had chewed up our apples. So much for breakfast.

Made some more tea/coffee (of course, I say made coffee/dinner, but it was the S. who took care of the cooking bit. I suppose there are some benefits to marriage :)). We were on the river in short order, rolling down the river.

Now, the section a few miles before the Smithfield Beach takeout is really annoying. The river is nice and wide, so, it runs slow. And the winds blow straight upstream. This makes for pretty slow going. On the other hand, it did give me some time to take some photos.

We took about an hour's break at Smithfield, to umm, perform ablutions. Then, on it was to the Water Gap. The Delaware Water Gap is this massive gap in the mountains through which the river travels. It's got some very nice steep cliffs. Very pretty. But to get to it, we had to go through some more wide, slow and wind-against-the-face type paddling, until we crossed the Shawnee Island. After that, things get pretty reasonable, though still slow. The boredom was telling on S. a bit at this point. Right around this time, I caught sight of a bald eagle. It was a nice specimen and the photo does not really do it justice.

As soon as you cross Shawnee, there are these bridge pillars (which always bring to my mind Rauros from middle earth, despite being absolutely nothing like that). Once you get to this point, the river picks up speed, and there are some riffles to give some excitement. It's a bit more fun in a kayak, since you get splashed, but, the canoe does keep you and yours dry :)

Before we knew it, we were at the takeout at the water gap, famished, bedraggled, but happy.

In all, an interesting trip, a good way to get S. involved in this whole outdoors business. Delaware river is rather good for people just trying out multi-day trips and canoe camping. The plus is that the river is friendly with hardly any rapids. The minus is the flip side of the same feature, the river is wide, and slow, and in stretches can get on people's nerves.

As it turned out, we did have curd-rice after all, but after we got home..

Bushi no Ichibun (Love and Honour)

2009-03-21T09:05:00.006-04:00

This is the third movie in Yoji Yamada's series of samurai movies. The other two being Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade .

In Love and Honour, Shinnojo a young samurai, who is the official taster for the daimyo is blinded after eating poisoned food. This puts him at the threat of losing his stipend and driving him into penury. His family pressures his wife Kayo to try and convince a high official who she has a passing acquaintance with to intercede on his behalf. The movie deals with the repurcussions of that action.

The movie follows in the style and tone of the other two. The focus is on the couple and their relationship. Shinnojo, like the protoganists of the other two movies, is not terribly enamoured with the samurai lifestyle. He would like to open a school so that children of all castes, not just samurai can learn swordsmanship.

Even though the three movies have no story arc joining them, they are stylistically connected. They all follow lives of "ordinary" samurai, and focus on their relationships. They are not about pomp and ceremony, like say Ran, or Throne of Blood or swashbucklers like Yojimbo or Sanjuro. The heroes are undemonstrative anti-Mifunes and there are no scenery-chewing histrionics.

The movies are shot with great care and adhere to using authentic period clothing, utensils and activities. The director composes some shots like photographs. Just letting it linger for a few more moments than might be considered strictly necessary. There are scenes (like Iguchi Seibei eating breakfast before going out for the day) which are again, not really required for the story but really adds to the mood. The movies and the heroes project a feeling of quiet and calm. The music is pretty good and really goes along with the action.

I guess it is pretty obvious by now that I utterly enjoyed all the movies. I very highly recommend them.

Chandrayaan lands

2008-11-15T10:48:00.000-05:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16043-indian-probe-lands-on-moons-surface.html

Kumble Retires

2008-11-05T13:48:00.001-05:00

The other man on the podium

2008-10-17T11:26:00.002-04:00

During the Mexico Olympics in 1978, two black US athletes protested racial inequality. I had seen that picture before. What I didn't know was that the third guy in the picture, a white australian, had joined in the protest and paid a personal and professional price for it. Very brave.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7674157.stm

Knopfler in Philadephia

2008-08-17T11:02:00.004-04:00

Back in the day, when I was still a lad in school, when Azharuddin was captain, Kapil Dev was still playing for India, I was introduced to the music of Mark Knopfler. I was a complete tyro when it came to the music scene. Much of my musical knowledge came from my infinitely more sophisticated buddy ND. One day, he decided to share his wisdom with me, and show me the way of Knopfler. Said he : 'See da, normally no, in songs, the guy will sing and there will be some guitar solo maybe in the middle. But, in Dire Straits, you have long guitar solos in the beginning, sometimes in the middle and the end too. This guy is god da. But some of those songs are very long da.'.

So, with that stirring recommendation, I went out and bought my first ever tape: Dire Straits Love Over Gold. I was immediately taken in by the songs, and this attraction continued through college, listening to 'Money for Nothing and Walk of Life' in Ra42's then-new-and-cool discman and right through to the present day.

So, two years ago, when Kogi Kaishakunin asked me if I was interested in checking out Mark Knopfler's concert in philly, I jumped at the chance. We had nosebleed seats, but the concert rocked. This year, however, we had seats in the orchestra section with the stage no more than 20 meters away. The concert was in support of his album Kill to get Crimson.

It was with much anticipation that I went to this concert and my expectations were more than satisfied. Mark Knopfler has such a chilled out attitude, he looks and acts more like a friendly uncle than the musical god that he is. Totally understated presence, lyrics that seem to be more spoken than sung and absolutely virtuosic guitar playing. It's really as though he decided to generally chill out with some friends and play some music and oh, look, there's an audience watching too!

All the usual Dire Straits favorites were there, Telegraph Road, Romeo and Juliet, Brothers in Arms, along with his solo album work and songs from Kill to get Crimson.

I have since checked out his interviews online. The guy is clearly quite personable, thoughtful and has quite a sense of self-deprecating humour. Like Kogi said, the guy has mellowed out just the right way as he aged :)

In conclusion, Knopfler is a legend in our times, and I guess, I should be thankful to Mr. ND for introducing me to Dire Straits all those years ago, in his house in Chennai :)

Thoughts on Tax Day

2008-04-18T16:00:00.000-04:00

To Be or Not To Be

2007-12-20T09:51:00.001-05:00

Chennai Superstars

2007-12-03T00:39:00.000-05:00

Stalingrad

2007-10-26T15:30:00.000-04:00

This is a german movie about the Battle of Stalingrad. It's main focus is on a group of german soldiers and their trials through the battle. The Battle of Stalingrad is one of those things that's so huge in scale that numbers no longer make sense. The battle lasted six months, there were 1.5 million casualties on both sides and the germans suffered a decisive defeat. The battle was fought with utmost brutality by both sides.

The movie does not follow the larger strategic aspects of this battle, and just focuses on the platoon. It's realistic and probably one of the few movies I have seen that portrays the german soldiers as individuals.

Indian World Champ

2007-10-01T09:30:00.001-04:00

Not cricket :)
Vishwanathan Anand has won the World Chess Championship.
http://ia.rediff.com/sports/2007/sep/30chess.htm

Ditto

2007-09-29T23:36:00.000-04:00

It's a Korean movie about two students who start talking to each other across a gap of 20 years through HAM radios. It's basically a melodrama. It's rather nicely taken, if a little sentimental.

Downfall

2007-06-17T12:23:00.000-04:00

This is a german flick depicting the last days of Adolf Hitler in his Berlin bunker. The story is told from the perspective of Hitler's personal secretary. It's based partly on the memoirs of Traudl Jung. This movie caught some flack for humanising Hitler. The movie shows him being really nice to his secretaries, the Goebbel's children and a few others. I suppose the protestors were against any attempt to show Hitler in a remotely positive light. While I am sympathetic to their feelings, I think they are wrong. Demonising (or deifying) historical characters keeps us from properly understanding history. Hitler was most definitely human, as was Gandhi.

Coming back to the movie, it quite starkly describes the last dying gasps of Berlin as the soviets inexhorably grind their way towards it. There's escapism, delusion and sardonic acceptance of reality all in equal measure. It's hard not to wonder at the german army top brass who, knowing full well that they were lost stayed loyal to their leader. Was it servility? Were their protestations of loyalty to their oaths real? Was it fatalism? I suppose it is hard to know.

In all, an interesting movie, recommended for all who are interested in the history of this period.

Mozhi

2007-06-03T10:06:00.000-04:00

It's got Prithviraj, Jyothika, Swarnamalya and Prakashraj playing the main roles. Prithviraj and Prakashraj play Karthik and Viji. Karthik sees and falls in love with Archana, a deaf-mute girl played by Jyothika. Things happen.
This movie is brought alive by Prakashraj's easy humour and his interaction with Prithviraj. Their interaction is portrayed quite nicely. Jyothika's acting has been applauded in this movie. I thought it was a bit overwrought. Swarnamalya plays Jyothika's friend : a nice, undemanding role played appropriately. They all live in the same apartment complex and the other characters in the complex were played decently.
I checked out the soundtrack too, and it's surprisingly decent ( we fast forwarded through the songs in the movie :-) ).
In all, a good movie.

One fine afternoon in Africa

2007-05-23T08:06:00.000-04:00

The London Lion

2007-05-15T15:50:00.001-04:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=452820&in_page_id=1

Hot Fuzz

2007-05-14T03:17:00.000-04:00

Watched this flick in Boston after a nice kayak trip on the Charles.
Brilliant escapist fun, from the same people who made Shaun of the Dead. Highly recommend it.
Cop gets posted to a middle-of-nowhere village in england which hasn't had a single crime in 20 years. Obviously things don't stay as quiet any longer.

Rangoon

2007-05-06T12:48:00.000-04:00

Rangoon is a Burmese Restaurant in Philadelphia. Burmese food seems to have a fascinating mix of chinese, thai and Indian influences.

I had the firecracker lentil fritter (which is almost identical to desi masala vadai), thousand layer cake with vatana dip (which looks and tastes like a parotta with yellow dal curry) and a monsoon vegetable. I found the flavoring quite nicely balanced and light.

I would rate it a definite try :-)

Cool Design ideas

2007-05-02T19:49:00.000-04:00

Here is a collection of simple, cool design ideas that are making a difference across the world.

A Delaware River Trip

2004-06-16T01:14:00.000-04:00

This Memorial Day weekend, I went on a kayak camping trip on the Delaware River. Here's a pretty decent trip report by Mudra Rakshasa.

I am the guy referred to as Sambar :-)

It was pretty cool prepping for the trip. The trip to EMS was most enlightening. I found that you could get sleeping bags that fit in a cylinder about 8 inches by 4 inches and indeed I did get one. My kayak is not a rec or expedition type kayak, so the smaller I can get things, the better. I found a waterproof flashlight with an LED in the place of a conventional bulb. It actually works completely immersed (I checked :-) ). It also is supposed to provide 800 hrs of light. One can get it in Walmart.

As the trip report suggests, I was pretty keen on making it to the Delaware Water Gap proper. The four mile stretch before the Smithfield beach take-out (which is about 8 miles upriver of the Water Gap take-out) killed all interest. The water was flat and the wind was against us. The sun was hight. These 'dead' conditions tend to sap the paddler's strength and enthu. Oh well. Next time :-)

Another interesting aspect of the trip was that the temperature plummetted in the night. It was 75-80 degrees in the day. After sunset, the temperature quickly dropped to the high thirties. This cold nixed Mudra Rakhsasa's plans of a midnight swim. He had done it last year, with just the moonlight and my flashlight for illumination. This year, well, we just couldnt wait to hit the bed. This cold probably contributed to the generally unsettled sleep that everyone had.

In all, the trip and its aftermath (which involved having pizzas for dinner on the shoulder of the freeway, another story entirely) was thoroughly appreciated by all concerned, especially the two who had never been camping before (my cousin and his friend).

Yet Another Delaware River Trip

2004-06-24T02:33:00.000-04:00

I went on a day-trip on the Delaware River from Upper Black Eddy to Lumberville. There is a trip report up on the Curd-Rice Kayakers' Webpage.

The Origin of the Curd-Rice Kayakers

2004-06-30T09:47:00.000-04:00

Check out the trip reports for the first Curd-rice kayaker's trip.

Idlis on the Beach

2004-08-20T03:25:00.000-04:00

It all started with a email sent to a friend of mine. I hadnt met him in ages and pretty soon it was decided that we would meet on a weekend and go to the beach.

Despite the fact that I love the beach, I hadnt been to one all this year. With the summer quickly drawing to a close I was getting desperate. My previous beach trip in this country had been something of a dampener with one friend deciding that he would enjoy the beach sleeping in the car and another rolling up in a blanket and reading a book, leaving me to play in the waves all by myself.

I drove up to Jersey City with two kayaks, my Mongoose, trusty companion of many a trip and a borrowed Ocean Kayak Frenzy. We had decided to go to Sandy Hook National Park in New Jersey. The idea was to try the Frenzy on the waves and then take out both kayaks on the Bay.

Well, the appointed day started kind of cloudy and cool. Exactly not the beach kind of day :-) Undaunted, we all set out for the beach. My friend and his family (wife, brother, and his parents) and I.

One of the cool thing about having parents along is that good food is ensured. This time, it was chutney sandwiches and idlies. A little note on the idlies first. These were not just idlies. These were nicely coated with molagapodi and nallennai(gingelly oil). This has to be the absolute apex of idlies. Mouthwatering spicy stuff.

Anyway, we went to the beach and promptly launched the Frenzy. As the 'senior' kayaker, I got the privilege of giving it the first shot :-). The waves were really gentle and the sun was playing hide-and-seek with the clouds. I took the kayak out for a little bit and returned, thereby convincing the assembled populace that the kayak was safe :-)

We played around for a bit in the water and discovered that while the water was not too cold, the cool wind made it a little uncomfortable after leaving the water.

Paddling in the sea was a new experience for me, though I didnt venture too far from the shore. The waves were gentle and it was more a bobbing sensation as opposed to the kind of working over that the rapids on a whitewater river give. Even only a short distance from the shore, the only sounds you can hear are the waves (and the occasional motorboat). When I went a little further out to sea, I could see the New York City skyline and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. All very picturesque especially when the sun came out of the clouds. I even got to go and 'rescue' a little kid's beach toy which had been blown offshore by the winds :-). The last time I went out, there was a wind blowing from the shore. I 'rode' that wind out to get the furthest I ever did from the shore. I noticed that the wind was getting a bit stronger and the sea a little more choppy. Getting back was interesting, since the wind was still there, but not really hard.

After a while more friends from Boston showed up and with vegetable puffs from Hot Breads. We all had another 'go' on the kayak, desultorily played some soccer and decided to head back.

As a bonus we all went to the beach again the next day, in Manasquan this time. The waves were a little bigger and gave us a little more of a working-over :-)

In all, my first beach trip of the year was really good. Hopefully, I should get to do a little more of this before winter

A river trip report from last year..

2004-11-21T10:43:00.000-05:00

Yeh, un dinon ki baath hai..

This is something that happened in the Summer of 2003. It was a fine summer weekend. Pleasant weather. I got up Saturday morning feeling full of energy, all ready to go out and do great deeds. I reflected that I had really not worked out hard throughout the week. Maybe I would go for a nice long run to make up for it. I then had a heavy brunch and slept off watching Shahenshah on TV.

Woke up 4:30 ish, decided to go have a pleasant hour's paddle on the Schuylkill River. I had discovered a couple of weeks previously that the Schuylkill flowed right past Phoenixville and that the section was boatable. There is a canal that parallels the river so one could paddle down the river, get on the canal and paddle up. The canal, apparently was a quiet, slow-flowing body of water. No need to take drinking water.. Just a little hour's paddle.. Max two hours paddle..http://www.schuylkillcanal.com/about/index.html

So, I got up to the river, got all dressed for paddling, got on the river 5:30-ish and proceeded to have a pleasant paddle down. There were some little riffles where the water got a bit faster. The river consists of slow sections interspersed with places where the river was constricted due to maybe a fallen tree or just natural features. The water was a little faster here with riffles. This little detail would prove vitally important later.

Well, about an hour down, no sign of canal. The river was getting distinctly more pushy. I decided to take a right channel to get past a fairly small looking island. That little island ended up being fairly long. And beautiful. Deer suddenly running up the banks, clearly disturbed by this strange half-man, on a boat. Blue herons taking off in the most stately manner. I was pretty much all alone on the river. No places renting boats along the banks. Just a few houses and mostly woods on this section. I was vaguely thinking about the line 'Just a lonely impulse of delight' (http://www.bartleby.com/148/3.html).

My poetic reverie was interrupted when I reached the end of the island and found that the main stream (the left channel) of the river was flowing quite fast and there was what seemed to be 2 feet drop on the river on the left side which I had bypassed by paddling the right-hand channel. By now, of course, it was nearly an hour into the paddle. The canal had to have appeared by now.

Now, that didnt bode well. I figured I would go downstream some more. The canal had to show up. As backup I decided to call up my friends and ask them to come downstream and give me a ride upstream. No one seemsed to be around to pick up their phone. By now, it is nearly 6:45. Upon enquiring with a couple of fishermen I discovered that I was way-way downstream of where I was supposed to be.

Now, I had to paddle upstream all the way. Or give up and try to get to a road and hitch a ride. I figured that going upstream couldnt be all *that* bad. After all, I had paddled slightly more than an hour. I had another hour's sunshine and anyway, if the water got too swift or shallow, I could always get out and carry the boat.

So, up the river I went and it was something. At the island I had passed earlier you about, the water was too low for my paddle to get enough 'bite'. While it doesnt matter too much if you are going downstream, it is the most important thing if you are going upstream :-)

Well, I got off, and started dragging the boat along. Pretty soon, I was wading through thigh-deep water. Where the water was shallow enough to get on, there was not enough purchase for the paddle and where I could have paddled, I couldn't get on. Finally, I found a place which was shallow enough to get on, deep enough to paddle out of. And that is how it went to get out of the island.

Once on the main-stream, of course, it was a matter of slogging through the slow sections and trying find the little eddies that would help me get past the faster riffles. Occasional getting out of the boat and pushing it along the river. At places, I was in waist deep moving water. It ended up being a total body work out :-).

Oh, also, by this time, the sun was setting and the moon was rising. Beautiful. The sun was making the water take on a really beautiful shade of pinkish red. After sometime, the sun set and the moon was out in all its glory. Just beautiful. The last hour, I paddled purely by the light of the moon.

While it was really beautiful, I had to be really careful not run my boat into an unfriendly tree that had fallen across the river. Going up the last riffle was really really interesting since I had to paddle largely by feel.

At long last, sore and aching, I reached my put-in point. And discovered that I couldn't figure out where exactly I had left my car. I had left my waterproof light at home :-) I had actually paddled further upstream of the place where I had parked my car. Sometime now, my friend called up to find out why I had called :-)

Now, finally having reached back, and feeling pretty good about myself, I stepped out of the boat and promptly fell on my ass in the muddy slushy water and got properly dunked. It was not even knee deep. My cellphone got fully immersed and gave up its ghost.

Upon chatting with some fishermen, I discovered that the canal doesnt join the river as such. It runs parallel to the canal. I should have taken out and portaged across to the canal. Clearly, I should have read the website more carefully :-)

While it took me about an hour to get downstream, it took nearly 3 to get upstream. I was really fortunate too. If it hadn't been for the fact that the river is quite sluggish, I wouldnt even have made it up. Well, I have learnt my lessons. I always carry my torchlight and water. And, I make sure I know exactly what I am going to do :-)

I also learnt that paddling in the moonlight is a really really cool experience :-) I did the entire section (the river+portage+canal) this year with a friend of mine on a moonlit night.

Sunday River Skiing

2005-03-17T03:41:00.000-05:00

I had not done much skiing before this year (three afternoons' worth, three years ago). I was always a little worried that my knees would get injured. Seeing people in casts at work every skiing season did little to change my opinion.

This season, my friends (KD, SD and LR) convinced me to try skiing again with the eloquent argument 'What are you, chicken?'. Of course, now they claim that they didn't say anything of that sort. Apparently, all they did was to point out that skiing was a fun outdoor activity that a guy like me would enjoy and that my fears of knee injury were misplaced. I guess recollections of events vary.

Suffice it to say that peer pressure is not always a bad thing.

I skied for the first time in Wachusett Mountain in Boston, spending about three hours on the beginner slope there. I hasten to add that I use the word skiing in the loosest of ways. All I remembered was that I was supposed to make a wedge as I came down. Towards the end of the day, I thought I was doing ok.

The second time was with KD, SD and LR at Mountain Creek. One look at my 'skiing' and they basically said 'Stay here on the beginner slope, work your technique' and that's what I did all day. The slopes on mountain creek look like Ranganathan Street on a busy Saturday evening. Just way too many people. It's great for practicing control, though :-)

Of course, I enjoyed it all so much that I put in an order for skis, boots and poles. Sports Authority had a 40% off sale on all these, and I figured I would make the money back in a few trips. So, when we went to Sunday River in Maine the next weekend, I was all ready with my gear.

Sunday River is a cool ski resort with six mountains with multiple beginner, intermediate and advanced slopes. We rented a slope-side condo and the price included lift tickets and lessons for two days. In all, it worked out to a pretty reasonable price. We made it there late Thursday night. The plan was to get up early on Friday and start skiing at 9:00 am.

As it happened (and it happens often), we got up at 9:00, started skiing at 11:00. Once we got on the slopes wanderlust gripped SD. He just wanted to ski every slope that he could. Of course, this enthusiasm was infectious. The way the trails are set up, you can go from hill to hill on long traverses. These don't have much of a slope. So, we'd do a green trail a couple of times, then, the next time up, get on one of the traverses, go to the next mountain, do the green trails there and so on. We started with the left-most hill (which was easiest) and worked our way right. Towards the end, of course, the greens were more challenging. The last two we did (Dream Maker and Lollapalooza) were the toughest green trails on the hill.

Now, ideally, for a skier like me(i.e. novice with no clue), the best thing to do is to go across the slope, left to right, then, turn, come back right to left and so on. This traversing of the slope ensures that regardless of the slope, you never pick up too much speed. Of course, you start in a wedge, but the longer your traverses are, the wedge disappears and your skis start getting parallel. That's the first step to developing the proper skiing technique, apparently.

As I got more exhausted, all I was doing was pretty much going down straight, picking up lots of speed, and wedging like crazy in an attempt to slow down. Of course, I thought I was still traversing. Exhaustion can do that sort of thing to your mind. Ideally, I should have stayed on a simple beginner slope and worked my technique. But I was having so much fun hopping the hills with the rest of the gang that I just went with the flow.

Lollapalooza was a harsh mistress, to quote SD, with steep icy sections. And, coming down Lollapalooza, I had a mighty fall. I lost one ski, briefly attempted one-legged skiing and finished with a face plant on the snow. I had landed in one of the icier sections and I could barely get up because my ski boots kept slipping out from under me. Putting my skis back on was an adventure all unto itself. LR stayed with me the whole time, helping me get my things together, and making sure I got back on my skis. I owe her one.

At long last, we were done for the day and did a few long traverses (Kansas, Lower Lazy River, Road Runner) to get back to the condo. I was beat. I was tired, I was hungry. A brief digression on the hunger part...

KD, SD and LR believe in ascetic skiing. They neither eat nor drink when they ski. They look down upon anyone who is weak enough to succumb to the temptations of the flesh while on the slopes :-). No doubt this pleases the Skiing Gods who then bestow their blessings. I have no clue how they manage it. Me, I finished off my ration of four granola bars and an apple and an entire bottle of water in the course of the five hours of skiing.

After we got back, I spent some time in the jacuzzi, which really relaxed my aching muscles. We then went out and had a big, nice dinner. Oh yeah, by this time, it had started snowing too. We chilled out after the dinner, listening to some music, indulging in some pleasant conversation, mostly about how cool the day's skiing had been and how great the next day's skiing was going to be. There were brief digressions on 80s Hindi movies, Rock and Roll and other assorted trivia. It had been a great day and every one felt really good. Nothing like a hard physical workout, followed by a hot jacuzzi and lots of good food to put one in a mellow mood :-)

The next day, we woke up to find that there had been nearly a foot of snow overnight, and we just couldn't wait to start skiing. I was quite pleased with Friday's skiing, so I figured that I would just ski for four hours or so and just chill out at the restaurant the rest of the time.

When we hit the slopes, we were surprised by the quality of the snow. Fresh Powder! The feeling was just great. Of course, it was continuously snowing (sometimes at 2 inches an hour) for the whole day. The snow kept many people off the roads and hence the slopes presumably. So, the resort wasn't as crowded as it might have been on a Saturday.

The heavy snow also meant that the skiing conditions were way different than the first day. For one, the snow slowed me down to such an extent that I felt confident enough to try a fairly easy Intermediate slope. More on the snow a little later.

In the meanwhile, LR lost her way, and managed to run a black diamond. So, KD and SD decided to run that black diamond with her one more time. While these folks were playing with the Blacks and the Blues, I decided to go check out my favorite traverse, the Three Mile. It was a fairly long run, and I met the rest of the gang at South Base.

Here, I discovered that I had a free lesson as part of the package and decided to take it. I was dead-tired by this point and figured that a nice quiet lesson would be a good way of topping the trip off. Well, as it happened, the lesson involved us doing Dream Maker two more times and a fairly steep Intermediate slope called Escapade. While my plans of an easy, chilled out afternoon were shot to bits, the lesson really helped. Deadly Dave, our instructor, had us focusing on specific things. I picked up a couple of concepts (making sure that the head stayed level, dealing with bumps etc) that really helped me. After the lesson, I ran Dream Maker a couple more times, just to make sure I had absorbed the lesson well.

Well, remember how I had planned on a easy half-day of skiing? By the time all this was done, and I was making my way back to the condo (another run of long traverses across the mountains), it was 4:00 pm. I had skied the entire day. My muscles were burning . We packed up, and drove to Boston to some hot Thai food on Madurai Avenue. The drive in the snow (it snowed non-stop) was fairly uneventful but for a skid while merging into 95 near Boston. Heh, suffice it to say that what's fun on the slopes is not fun on the road.

Boston, well, was Boston. Friends, Food, the usual bit.

In all, this trip was fantastic. Just the first day was paisa vasool. I really enjoyed the quiet runs with very few people to share the hill with.

The second day just blew my mind. The heavy snow muffled every sound, and on the lesser used trails, all you could hear was the snow falling. I stopped at many places to just enjoy the quiet(like Robert Frost stopping by the woods on a snowy afternoon :-) ). Skiing in that deep fresh snow was such a great feeling, though. All you hear is the whisper of the skis on the snow. More a swish than the usual crunch. Oh, and the deep snow 'gives' so much, it is almost like you are weightless. Like you are swimming. Or flying even. Like water on glass. Man, it was such a great feeling, I still feel good thinking about it! Even the times I fell, it felt like falling on a giant white bed.

I think I am spoiled for life :-) I doubt if I will ever be lucky enough to get snow like that again..

Anyway, that's how it all came out. I know this is a pretty long winded post, but hey, I had to get it all in :-)

If you made it this far, people, take my word for it, if you get a chance, try skiing. It's great, cool and awesome. If you are worried about injuries, well, as long as your bindings are set right, you won't have problems. If you live in a place that gets snow, well, there's no better way to pass the otherwise dreary winter months. Heh, Good luck then, and more powder to you :-)