Vishal's Blog

River Rafting in Leh Published on the HSBC Intranet With temperatures rising in Bombay, I along with my wife headed to Leh to beat the heat. Leh is very famous for its white water river rafting. We had never done rafting earlier; it was our first, surely not the last. There are many options for river rafting in Leh Ladakh; We chose to raft from Phey to Nimu (a stretch of 3 hrs). On the bank of the river, I was filled with thrill, excitement and fear. Traversing through the deep waters amidst deep canyons and soaring snow-covered peaks we reached ‘Nimu’, where the Zanskar river confluences with Indus. The river is graded as class III/IV. The water was freezing cold. There were 3 teams rafting together. We were 8 people on the boat; me, my wife, a family of 5(foreigners) and our instructor. We performed exciting river rafting. It made me feel very proud of myself that I could raft well in spite of rafting for the first time. I later realised that rafting is a team effort. We had a nice ...

Many people have an uncanny habit of listening to other people’s conversation. I have it. Though I may not be very keen to do that, but it happens unknowingly. It may not be polite but a few times (mostly while travelling) I have come across situations when I was inadvertently listening to my neighbours’ conversation, trying to make the morbid journey interesting. Last Friday on my way back home, while getting down from the train I over-heard two ladies discussing with each other about an interesting experience. As I was looking forward to get down from the train, I was away from them in a moment to hear their discussion further. After getting down from the train, the walk down the road to my house was full of anticipation. I kept wondering what that interesting experience could have been. A movie, a meeting, a friend, a boy-friend, a lover, a travel experience? I probably may never know because I never knew them at the first place. These ladies too may never know how their harmless go...

Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One boss feels modern technology (in F1) owes ecology an apology. There is a global-crisis which has affected Formula One as well. He has therefore proposed a few regulations this year to provide 'responsible entertainment' to fans by reducing both the emissions and the team spendings. The teams according to him also have to think about the drastic dip in revenues of their sponsors and accordingly cut costs. Various teams were at loggerheads with him on the cost-cutting issue but now it seems the dark clouds have parted as these teams have started unveiling their cars for the new season. Losing is inevitable. But the smart ones never forget the lesson. And that is what Ferrari is doing. After a heart-breaking and nerve-wrecking defeat by a solitary point to the nearest rival Mclaren in the driver's championship category, instead of resting on its laurels they have taken the initiative and unveiled its new car before their rivals for the year 2...

My phone rang and when I picked it up, I heard a happy voice at the other end. It was Samir, my friend Raj’s younger brother who was a fresher and was looking for a job. Raj who is in the UK, called me a few days back and requested me to help his younger brother find a job. Samir, therefore used to call me regularly to check if I could help him. But that day was a different day as he had found himself a decent job in a leading pharmaceutical company in Mumbai. The salary offered was good and the company was located in Andheri (a suburb in Mumbai) which wasn’t too far from where Samir lived, which excited him as he didn’t have to travel much to office. Samir used to ride his bike to work, much to the dislike of his parents because they felt it was unsafe for young people. His argument was that, it helped him save a lot of time. I distinctly remember that day he wanted to meet me and thank me for trying to help him find a job. I told him that he doesn’t have to thank me for doing that, b...

Daniel Craig in one of his movie pre-release interviews mentioned that he wanted the Indians to watch the movie before the Americans. There was an anticipation for this movie before it was released because of this. A superb performance by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale was the reason why this movie too received such a stupendous welcome. A sequel to Casino Royale, Bond this time fights with Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) who heads the Quantum gang, poses as an environmentalist but actually wants to take control of the Bolivian water supplies. Chasing the bad guys across Austria, Chile, Italy and Austria, Bond wants to take revenge of the killing of his love interest Vesper Lynd who was killed. The movie begins with Bond being chased by a few henchmen who are eventually killed by him. One of the trusted aides of Madam M, who turned a traitor, is killed by Bond. The search for another lead-Edmund takes him to Haiti and is killed again. Annoyed by the constant killing of such important l...

Humans are born with discrete levels of zest and trait. Every human life goes through cyclical ups and downs. Birth and Death are the irrevocable extremes. Extremes are inevitable truth of life; and they define each other’s existence. Nature also exhibits different extremes- Hot and Cold, Day and Night, etc. The Chinese call such polar forces as “Yin” and “Yang”. Yin represents “darkness” and Yang represents “brightness”. Yin and Yang are thus; two sides of the same coin and are always associated with each other. The underlying principle of our life is based on these unparallel forces. Being a Goju-Ryu (Japanese) style Karate student, the above principle is easy to understand. In Japanese dialect, the name Goju means Hard and Ryu means Soft. It is also referred to as the Hard and Soft style. This style is based on synchronization of two extreme forces such as, Hard and Soft. A hard blow by opponent is blocked by a comparatively softer force and vice-versa. This style helps in conservin...

Slum Dog Millionaire was released in India amidst its share of glories and controversies. After the golden globes bursts, it not only received Oscar nominations but also was criticised by someone who on any day can easily be a brand ambassador of Bollywood – Amitabh Bachchan. There was, therefore a lot of curiosity for this movie. Danny Boyle’s Slum Dog Millionaire is a soul-stirring, fast, entertaining and a rags-to-riches story of a boy who can be easily written off as one from the slums but eventually goes on to become a millionaire on the “Who wants to be a millionaire” show hosted by Anil Kapoor. The movie is very enthralling and delves into the darker side of our own Mumbai. One may feel a bit odd watching the English version of the movie hearing the kids in the movie speaking a high accent English language. The story begins with the main character of the movie Jamal Malik enjoying his life as a child in our own Dharavi along with his brother. They belong to a family who cannot e...

LIFE IS LIKE A GAME OF FOOTBALL BY VISHAL JOSHI Published in The Times of India under The Speaking Tree section on 27th Apr'07 Life is a game of Football -

Mystic Ladakh (published in Chembur-Ghatkopar Plus-Times of India) After a long, adventurous and tiring journey from Manali; we arrived at our hotel in Leh. Since we wanted to acclimatise to the high altitude of Leh, we did not cover 475 kilometres at one go. The altitude made us feel giddy and also made difficult to breathe. The best way to avoid altitude sickness is to keep drinking water at intervals of 15-20 mins. It is also advisable to keep a bag of munchies along with you. The car on the way to Leh sputtered, hiccupped and groaned but kept moving over near-vertical lifts and gravity defying bends. The Manali-Leh highway is known as “The Bikers Paradise”. A lot of people opt for a bike ride; it gives them a opportunity to explore nature and the leisure to travel. The first day in Leh began with a visit to the famous and the aesthetically pleasing Shey Palace. Shey Palace and Gompa (temple) are one of the oldest in Ladakh. Shey, like every other Gompa ...