Luck knocked the door the next week!

Yes! yet again. Not through a radio show but in the form a gold ring. It was a fine sunday morning we started from our home. We planned for a short one day trip to a place called Tada which is around 90 Km from my home town, chennai. I, my uncle, Naresh, Karthik, saro and Narayanan went on 3 motor cycles. The place is famous for its water fall. I have never been there before, but other guys who came with me have been to this place before. I didn't expect a big water fall neither lot of water to play around. After 2 hours ride including our breakfast on the way, we reached the foot hills of the water fall. We went by motor cycle to the maximum distance we could possible get inside the forest. We parked the bikes and started walking following the water stream. It was soothing experience on a weekend. We always expect to stay away from the sound of vehicles and other pollution atleast for a while. What if you experience the same with some flavour. The flavour i meant is the sound of birds and just the sound of trees raising its voice for the tune of wind. I was surprised to see such a clear stream of water in India. I have never seen such a crystal clear water stream here. All of us changed our clothes and got ready to play in the water. I must mention about my friend karthik's swimwear. He said he bought his swim shorts in a swimming pool. It looked so awkward. one can not differentiate which is front and back in that shorts. We couldn't stop laughing at his shorts. I can show how it looks but i think I'll get my nose punched if I share that picture here :) That made our day so fun full.
I was wondering if we went there to enjoy the water fall and play there or to eat. We brought plenty of chicken and snacks with us. We kept eating all the way till we reached the biggest pool. We kept on walking along the stream and climbing small rocks. At one point we found plenty of water to play. Saro just was about to enter into the pool. He was focusing at something. the water was clear that we could see even a tiny stone present in the bottom. He saw a gold ring among tiny white pebbles in the water. I could immediately spot the ring as well. My arm was bit longer i could reach the ring by seeing it from above the water. But Saro couldn't do that. I tried couple of times and picked the ring. we all were already so happy to see such a clear water and a nice water stream there. The gold ring was a bonus for all of us :) we kept our treasure :P and got into the water.
A few of us thought we couldn't climb further up, but I, narayanan and saro thought to climb up the rocks and see more. Believe it or not, It was so slippery, I didn't have a proper shoe with grip neither I had good grip on my hand to hold something firmly. Just by chance we all could go up that big rock. It was over 30 feet. Just with very little grip we made it possible. We saw a deep lengthy pool and we heard the sound of water falling but we couldn't see from there. We could see it only when we get into the pool and swim further. One of the guys who climbed with me, knows to swim a little and the other one doesn't even know that. So i was the only one who could see the actual water fall. It looked a place shown in Anacondas :P It was dark and water was getting colder as i kept swimming close to the water fall. I was the only person there swimming alone. No one came to swim there. I was little scared to be there, Thought some big fish or crocodile might be there :P So after swimming there for about 10 minutes, I came out of that place. I thought to capture some pics there as the place really looked creepy and dark. We didn't even have grip to hold firmly and climb up so i didn't want to risk taking my 4000 kroner DSLR camera.
The next big task was what? Can you guess? How to get down? :P I was thinking in my mind when i was climbing up that rock, With no climbing gears we are just kidding to climb up. I was thinking, how to get down if climbing is this hard. But as we were thinking to get down, we spotted some other way to get down. It was much easier to get down and climb that way. We reached the big pool where other 3 were playing in water. After a while, we packed our things up and started our way back home. It was a adventurous trip and a lucky one for all of us. Luck knocked one of our doors, but it didn't know that 6 of us were inside. We shared it and made our trip a free one ;)

Does luck knock your door only once?

I was surprised to see today that i haven't written anything for past 2 months. So bad on me. I had something on my mind to write but didn't find leisure time to write it. But i always had time to check my wall posts on facebook. One of my friends from sweden asked me if I'm staying in India these days and asked my telephone number? I answered yes thinking that he is tripping in India and needs some help while travelling here. He replied the next day saying that one of his friends working in a radio station might call me and will ask a few questions. If i answer them correctly, then i could possibly win 500US$. I just took it like it could happen once in a bluemoon and for one in a million. I remembered his mail though. One afternoon, I got a call from Sweden saying that they are calling from RIX FM from stockholm. I thought someone from Taiwan will be calling me. Because my friend is in Taiwan right now.
He started recording my call. He started with a casual conversation . As usual, like every other person, he asked me if i saw a cow that morning. If i eat cows. These kind of questions are equivalent questions like "do polar beers live around you?", "Do you live in snow?" for a swede. He then went on for questions. The real question which i could win 500$. The answers for the questions were very tough. Yes tough for someone who dont have a clue about sweden. The answers for all 3 questions could be either Sweden or Switzerland :) Tough answers right ;) The first question he asked me was not clear, I asked him to repeat twice, i didn't know what to answer. I said is it switzerland? It was right. I made it by chance ;) The 2nd question was "Christian Heglund, sweden or switzerland?" Anyone who lived in sweden for atlest 3 or 4 months will be aware of surname "heglund" such a swedish name. I said its absolutely swedish. He asked me to change the answer to "i think its swedish" :P I said so. The last question was bit tricky. He asked something like penga ponga something like that. Even now i didn't get what he asked. I said it could be switzerland. He repeatedly asked me what did i say. I kept repeating Switzerland. He turned off the microphone and asked me to say sweden :P I said "I think, I think , I think its sweden" So I got all answers right. I was surprised and happy. I couldn't shout but i wanted to shout. I was in the office. Meanwhile in our conversation I said "hur är läget?" He was surprised. He didn't knew that I was in Sweden. He thought that I met my swedish friend in taiwan. His tone gone down when i said that i was in sweden for 2 years. I was bit sad if he'll offer the prize or not. He was expecting someone who is totally unaware of sweden. But finally he offered me 500USD prize money. hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was sponsored show by western Union to promote their business in Sweden. Thanks Western Union, RIX FM, RJ Joakim Bäckström and above all my friend Johan Svennung. I owe you a party mate! Cheers!

Million dollor snake!

Sand Boa, one of the common snakes found in India is usually seen in dry land containing loose soil. I heard a rumour a few months back saying that sand boas are sold for unbelievable price. Then I saw this news on news paper and a short report about this business on television a couple of times. Want to know how much it costs? The price ranges from 10000 Indian rupees to 3 million Indian rupees. Yes indeed! thats a jack pot snake! Was thinking for a while to search for one after i heard the price of this harmless species. hahaha.. But how to get started and whom to approach even if i get one by luck. Questions arise one by one. People say that there are agents who buy the snake for very low price and sell it to the final party for the maximum profit. The catcher of the snake from wild hardly gets 1% of the final price for which it is sold. I keep hearing such stories now and then. People say that they are bought by the pharma companies to carry research on a drug that is extracted from this snake and This drug can cure AIDS and cancer. Is this a legal business or smuggling or simply a rumour? If this is legal i'm in ;) But till now, i haven't heard anyone saying that he/she has got money selling that snake.

Justified or not??

My previous post about the existing policies in India gave rise to hot conversations between me and some of my friends and perhaps some unknown people as well. I failed to mention clearly about my idea of reservation. It need not be only for the lower caste people but it could be for anyone who is economically weak. There is no offense from my post for the poor harijans who want to claim reservation. And writing such a thing in my blog gave loads of feedback which will make me to think twice before i pen down. I hope i justified what i wrote.. As usual, I'll be back with my fotos, things happening around me.. Welcome back some time later..