Goecha La Trek: Day 1 - To Yuksom

Looks can't kill. I am sure about that now. Else I would have been busy pushing daisies up by now, after being murdered a few times over by the exquisite beauty of Himalayan peaks & the women folk of North-East India. Yes, I came back alive in one piece, after a two weeks 'affair' with the mountains. It all started when one Saturday afternoon, under the influence of alcohol perhaps, I signed up for email updates from Chennai Trekking Club. Among the many mails I got was this one from Tamal, on a trek in Sikkim. Having experienced the beauty of the Himalayas once before, I was always willing to go back. So I responded to the mail, Rob also agreed to join, and in no time the plan was made for the first week of May. Rob and myself had plans to extend the trip by another week making this a 16 days adventure.

Few preparatory treks were organized for the group to gauge and enhance the physical fitness. Daily exercise was also prescribed which I tried to follow religiously.. well almost. As the April 30th date came closer, the excitement was uncontrollable. Rob came a day before and we did all the shopping the evening before.Tamal had sent out a list of 27 items to carry during the trek - from thermal wear to sun screen, and insisted that the backpack shouldn't weigh more than 5 kilos. The idea was that, with the sleeping bag and mat, everyone got no more than 7 kgs to carry. I couldn't figure out how to find 18 pieces of clothing which weigh less than 200 grams a piece on average. So I decided to take everything one less than the prescribed numbers. Though it sounded like a clever idea at first, I realized the stupidity once I had to walk through snow in my shorts. Everyone was supposed to carry one trouser and they did. Me, smart-ass, followed the formula and carried one less than the prescribed number!

The Bangalore gang met outside the airport by 8:30 that Friday morning. We were six of us - Joydeep, Muthu, Kannan, Purna, Rob and myself. After a quick breakfast of Subway rolls and masala dosa we boarded our spicejet flight to Calcutta. I have never heard from anyone of an 'interesting' flight, and this one was no different. The air hostess even asked Kannan to switch off his iPod; too loud for the pilot to hear the communication from the ATC tower it seems.. morons! After a hop over at Hyderabad we reached Calcutta by 2:30 in the afternoon. Probably due to the iPod episode, we were delayed by half an hour [:)] and the Chennai team was waiting for us in the airport. They were 16 strong - Tamal, Marie, Prathaap, Alfonso, Raj, Bindu, Mahendra, Ketan, Prasad, Sowmy, Krishna, Rinkesh, Prem, Pavan, Shiva and Gokul. Any adventure becomes a memorable event or an ordeal depending on the character of the group, and honestly I have never traveled with a better group. We all got introduced to each other quickly, picked up our respective sleeping bags/mats and got into the taxis for our Calcutta city tour.

The drive from the airport to Haldiram's gave us a glimpse of the transforming city. Calcutta always fascinated me with the coexistence of militant communism and fast track development. Its probably just my 'kin preference' kicking in.. after all Mallus and Bongs are estranged sons of the same skewed ideology. The city still holds on to the iconic tram system, cycle rickshaws and Victorian buildings, but the skyline is slowly getting used to the high rises. Haldiram's was an awesome experience.. we filled half our stomach by just ogling at the delicacies on display. It was even suggested that we should plan a 4 days trek to Haldiram's, one day to each corner of the shop! The thought that we might be starving the next few days also helped in pushing an extra Rasagula or Kachori down the throat. With tears in our eyes (not the chillies, mind you) we all said goodbye to Haldirams and reached Babughat by the banks of Hubli, for a ferry ride to Howra. The hanging bridge looked fabulous in the twilight and Marie could not help breaking into a Salsa on board the ferry.

After getting off the ferry, the primary concern was food, especially as we had to get to Sealdah railway station by 10PM to catch our overnight train to New Jalpaiguri (NJP). After hanging around 'Moulin Rouge' and 'Barb-e-Q' with dreamy eyes for a while, we finally moved into 'Bhaduni', a restaurant serving Bengali food at Park Street. We had a few variants of fish fry and curry with rice and it was awesome. We reached the station just in time to catch the Darjeeling mail. Sealdah is one of the major railway stations in Calcutta and is close to Babughat. The huge hoarding of Allahabad bank kept above the station building gave us the impression that this might be the corporate office of Allahabad bank and not a train station. We got into two compartments and soon realized that we had booked only 20 seats for the 22 of us. Tamal had a 'talk' with the ticket examiner and after flashing some money did manage to get permission for the other two to sleep somewhere in the compartment.

The train was on time and we reached NJP station early the next morning. The taxis were waiting and after a short ride we reached Siliguri, which is about 8 kilometers from NJP. We checked into Hotel Manila for breakfast. We had a five hours ride to Yuksom ahead of us, from where the actual trek starts. Prasad and myself managed to get a short tour of the city in a cycle rickshaw, while Tamal was away with Marie & Alfonso to get the necessary permits. Strange as it sounds, foreigners need an Inner Line permit to visit Sikkim. As soon as we landed in NJP, Marie & I met a priest from the temple of God Saturn, who insisted that we should tie a thread on our hands to ensure protection during the journey. Both of us did tie this red thread and according to Marie it worked miracles in getting her the Inner Line permit in a jiffy. Saturn rules!

Click here for more..

Day 1: To Yuksom
Day 2: Yuksom to Tshoka
Day 3: Tshoka to Dzongri
Day 4: Dzongri to Lamuney
Day 5: To Samiti & Kockchurung
Days 6 & 7: Back to Tshoka & Yuksom
Days 8 & 9: To Darjeeling

Pictures from the trek here

Conversations with Pluto - Predicting future

I lost a thousand Rupees and two fish during the world cup football; courtesy betting. The money, I lost to the boy from the neighborhood shop for betting on Brazil to lift the cup this time. I always rooted for Brazil when it comes to Football, irrespective of the odds, and this bet was more an emotional act. The fish I lost to Pluto, my neighbor's cat the day Brazil lost to Netherlands. This bet was but based on a rational analysis, considering the performance of the two teams till then. You can argue it was a stupid decision, how the hell did I expect a cat getting me two fishes in case he lost? But the fact is he didn't. Just like Serbia's win over Germany, he accurately predicted Brazil's loss in that unfortunate quarter final match.

So Paul and Mani are not the only soothsayers in town. Pluto the cat had also predicted all the results quite accurately. He refused to bet against me when I said in-form Argentina will not reach the semi-finals. I was skeptical about breaking this news till now, worried about the ridicule. Talking about a cat's uncanny ability to foresee future is one thing, while a talking cat is quite another! But when Paul became an instant internet celebrity, I thought I should tell the world about Pluto as well. So I sat down to write the story. But as if anticipating this, Pluto came into the room and jumped on to the table.

'So you want to know how I did it', he asked me.

I never expected him to share his secret with me. So with much excitement I said 'Of course!'

'I didn't do it', he said without blinking an eye.

I was angry that he spoiled my story about the great soothsayer in my own house. 'what do you mean', I asked.

'The roaches did it', he said.

'what roaches?'

'Ok, let me ask you this.. where do you keep the old newspapers?', he quizzed me as if I don't know my own backyard.

'On the platform by the sink in the kitchen', I replied.

'Under the exhaust pipe, correct?' he added.

'yes, so what?', I didn't understand the plot.

He put on that all-knowing smile and said 'you know who lives up the exhaust pipe?'

'Yes I do, the filthy cockroaches'.

'And have you seen them shit? defaecate, I mean', he winked at me.

'Come on man, whats the point? Why will I see the roaches defaecate?', I was losing patience.

'That is your problem.. you never see the things that are right in front of you and search for answers in the far far world. The roaches don't defaecate just anywhere.. there is a method in the way they do it'

I felt like punching him on the face for the lecture. 'So if you draw a straight line through the shit particles, you get an Octahedron with the diagonal and side lengths in Golden ratio? Are you suggesting something like this?'

'Looks like you read too much into Davinci Code. The issue here is much simple. The roaches been consistently shitting on the losing team's picture, name or flag on the newspaper. I simply noticed this and you didn't', Pluto said triumphantly, licking the last morsels of fish off his paws.

'You must be kidding. How can those dumb roaches predict the future? You are making this all up', I could not agree to what he said.

'Ever heard of wisdom of the crowds, you dumbo?' he asked amusingly.

'No, I have heard of madness of the crowds'

'There you go again. Wisdom of the crowds is a postulate which says that the intelligence of the crowd will always be greater than that of the most intelligent guy in the group, or at times even greater than the sum of the parts', he explained with an air of authority.

'Who says so?', I wasn't ready to accept defeat lying down.

'Heard of the Iowa Electronic Markets, IEM, which has been consistently predicting the election results more accurate than the Gallop poll, for the last 20 years?'

I had no choice but to accept my ignorance.

'Well, this is a project of the College of Business in the University of Iowa, where a few thousand people are collectively allowed to predict the outcomes of elections, indirectly based on future contracts they buy/sell in the exchange. They have been doing this better than all the national polls for so many years now'. Pluto never wastes a chance to show off.

'OK', I said, not knowing what else to say.

'So your roaches have a better probability of getting the predictions right compared to Mani or Paul, as they use collective intelligence', he concluded.

'mmmm.. take it that I buy your bull, but how do these animals know the future?', I asked.

He stared at me for a moment and said 'as they say in the movies, you are given information on a need to know basis and you don't need to know that'.

'Oh', said I, rushing to the kitchen to see who the roaches are shitting on lately. Who knows, I might make a fortune with these roaches in the future!

Conversations with Pluto - Free Will

Pluto is my neighbor's cat. Though he categorically belongs to my neighbor, he spends most of his time at my place, like many of us spend the entire day at office. He sleeps on an extra mattress in the room, topples the dustbin and eat all that's inside and torture the unfortunate cockroaches who come out for a walk in the sun. Generally he keeps quiet as he goes on with the above mentioned acts, but there are times when he decide to have a conversation. I get worried whenever he puts on that serious face, scratch his head, jump on to the table and take seat atop the pile of books. This is his favorite attacking position, having gained the 'higher-ground' advantage over me slouching on the bean bag.

So after watching 'Bedazzled' for the Nth time, when he quickly jumped on the table I knew he is on to something. I had noticed him scratching his ears vigorously during that scene where Lucifer plays dice with God on the sidewalk. So I picked up a cup of coffee and sat down, ready to face the assault. Finally after a long wait the Oracle spoke..

"How did you, me and the circus came about?", Pluto asked. 'Circus' is how he generally refers to the 'rest of the world', where according to him, his master is one of the Head-Clowns.

I gasped at the profoundness of the question and answered, "Many say that a God created all this out of love. Some say it happened when electric charge acted upon a primordial soup of atoms. There are a few who think aliens did it. And then there are the real intellectuals who say all this is a simulation"

Giving me one of those you-are-hopeless looks he said, "Ok, for the time being let us assume that God did it. Can we?"

"But how can you base a discussion on an assumption? We shouldn't have ambiguity in rational dialogs", I tried to act intelligent and interested.

"If you use the assumption only as a premise and later prove it a fact by virtue of the outcome, for which the assumption was not directly utilized, then there is no problem", he said effortlessly like a primary school kid reciting Jack & Jill, as I desperately tried to wrap my head around the statement.

Sensing the confusion he soon added "Anyway, it doesn't matter in our case as we are not trying to prove anything", nudging me back on track.

As I nodded my head in the affirmative he continued, "So if indeed God created us, then why are our actions at times judged as evil? How can his creations be or do evil?"

"Heard of 'Free Will' moron?", I tried to be my assertive best.

"Ok Theophiles, what IS Free Will?", he retorted, with a twinkle in the eyes. I noticed it was the same delight with which he corners cockroaches in the room, before pouncing on them.

"HE did not want us to act like zombies or just enact a script, and hence gave us the free will to 'choose'. So while he fixed the start and end points for our journey, birth & death, he lets us decide the path we take from A to B. Our destiny is a function of the choices we make and destiny of the world is crowd-sourced from people like us, much like a web 2.0 content aggregator. And since we make our own decisions, we are judged on our actions", I concluded.

"Amen", said Pluto. "So HE shifted the responsibility of decision making to us, so that he can sit and judge us for everything we do. Is this what you are implying?"

"No, No.. he just wanted to give us more freedom to shape our lives the way we want. Its like writing the preface and introduction of a book and letting you write the rest of the chapters", I was beaming with pride on my excellent choice of example to make the point.

"mmmm.. impressive. So, let me ask you this. What would we have done if there was no free will?", he asked scratching his balls. (Cats can do it no matter where, and no one frets about it!)

"We would have followed HIS will I guess", I replied.

Without blinking an eye he asked again, "And do you think HIS will means no evil and only good?"

"Of course, that is why we do not call him Idi Amin"

"OK, so without free will we all would have done just good and the introduction of the so called free will now lets us do bad things as well? All that HE really gave us through free will is the knowledge of evil and the temptation to falter? What kind of a 'free' will is that mate?"

"Without both good and evil, how can you implement free will?" I tried to reason with Pluto.

"Choice need not always be about right and wrong, it can as well happen between multiple good options; like you choose the color of some shirt you buy. HE never thought of that possibility?" he asked as the wicked smile returned to his face.

I was quiet.

"Checkmate", said Pluto, as he jumped off the table after another roach.