Fidgety Foots

This Memorial day weekend we decided to test our skills at backpacking. The chosen destination was the Sunol East Bay Regional park which had been recommended by our friends as a good location for backpacking virgins. It was a short trip…from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning.

We had planned to hike to the campsite (only 5 miles away) in 2 hours. 2 hours did I say? Hah! 5 miles uphill with a 30-40 pound pack resting on bony hips is like 200000 miles of regular walking. Or grim plodding, which is what we were doing by the end. We took all of 5 hours to make it to camp.

The campsites were unlike any we’d seen before. They were set 10 mins walk away from each other, so we could literally pretend we were the only 2 humans around.

We set up camp, ate dinner, watched the sun set, crawled our aching selves into sleeping bags and passed out.

Memorable moments are listed below.

Little frogs: Walking through heather, we came across hundreds of miniature frogs crossing the trail to get to a small pond. This is a pic of the frog on Sunil’s palm.

Exhausted dog: Half-way through the hike we were taking a break from our self-inflicted pain when a couple with a small dog (think Men in Black) came by. The dog immediately ran towards us and came to a standstill in our shadows. We became aware of a loud wheezing disturbance which we realized was the poor dog huffing and puffing for all it was worth. The dog’s owners kept calling it and even started walking but to no avail. Lionheart here had no intention of budging from our shadows and finally just plopped on the ground in the shade. Last we checked the owners had walked back and given the last of their water to Mr. Endurance who was sprawled out in a shady nook.

Sunset on the hills was glorious. After setting up camp, we went up and watched the sun set behind the hills. It started out a slow golden creep, then suddenly we were wrapped in a smoky orange haze. Totally worth the hike.

Cows which surrounded our campsite and moooooooed loudly at each other through the evening. There is a fence that is supposed to separate cows and campers, but it clearly doesn’t work. These were HUGE, muscular mammas who stared fixedly at us when we passed them.

The return was uneventful. We woke up early next morning, ate breakfast and were packed up by 8.15am. We did not linger too much at the campsite thinking that it would take a few hours to get back. But we took the short route (3 miles) back most of which was downhill and were back at our car by 9.45 am. So to emphasize, we took the long way uphill and the short route downhill, hmm, yup definitely makes sense.

This little hike so close to home brought us strange and new experiences. I guess travel doesn’t mean a long trip.

Every year since 1912, the bay to breakers race is run in San Fran. It’s 12 miles of hilarious madness…sorta like halloween all over again.

My personal favorite is the “spawning salmon” group who starts at the finish line and runs backwards. A close second is the guys wearing only camelbacks, sports watches and running shoes :).

Check out the photos here.

This is hilarious. The Mumbai underworld has code names for the superstars of Bollywood.

This is an open letter to the Eyebrow Underground. You want me to ‘do’ my eyebrows. I don’t want to. Why would I subject myself to the exquisite torture of having hair pulled from my face while I am conscious, hmmm?

My latest encounter of the nth kind was with the lovely young woman at the beauty parlor who was giving me a pedicure(mmm…foot massage!). She was oriental perfection, from the tip of her smooth brown head to her manicured toenails. She really, really wanted to ‘fix’ my blowsy brows. The ensuing battle shook the heavens. I wiggled my highbrows at her, beat a strategic retreat and sang thankfully as I whizzed home.

This incident is but one harrowing example of many where I have been bearded by your zealots. As you see from my recounting, I cannot be turned. I therefore respectfully request you to allow me the luxury of facial hair.

Regards,
Brow Beaten

A study has found that being gay/lesbian may not be a mere lifestyle choice as most right-wing gay bashers claim, it may have to do with the chemical wiring in the human body. There are so many ignorant people who believe that people become gay just for the heck of it and that they can easily control themselves if they so choose to. Hopefully this study will be one of many that prove otherwise. Although, in my opinion, it shouldnt be any of our business why a person is gay, if it is their own free will and if they have a consenting partner then so be it. The government should never get into the business of laying down laws restricting the sexual preferences of its citizens.

I hope the government of India is taking note and strikes down Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code which mandates that being gay is unnatural and you can be arrested/incarcerated for being so. Although it will also require that Indian society start displaying more tolerance towards them which is another issue.

Citizen’s justice.
http://my-bangalore.blogspot.com/2006/05/oh-well-what-hell_04.html

California reacts to Tommy’s excesses by banning the purchase of ultrasound machines.:)

I guess any publicity is good publicity.

“More and more, well-heeled Indian parents are pulling kids out of public schools and putting them in private schools where fees range from $12,000 to $15,000 a year. They are driven from a young age — from dance classes to piano lessons to tennis clinics — by feverish parents spurring them to success, sometimes a little too insistently.”
Check out this excellent article by Chidanand Rajghatta on the pressures of being ABCD.

If you havent seen this yet then you are missing out. Steven Colbert takes some mighty digs at Bush during the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Although I will admit, it stops becoming funny after a while and just plain insulting. Not surprisingly the mainstream media completely ignored it.