Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

I took this book along on our trip to Coonoor during the independence day weekend. We had three days there and we did not want to do the typical whirlwind tour of touristy places so i hoped to have a quite vacation with mein, meri pathni & yeh book.

P was sure i would not even get half way through it. I hadn't read a book since DaVinci code, which i read over 3 weeks (!!!!) so i had the track record to prove her right. Both she and i were in for a surprise. I practically did not put the book down through the trip and in fact finished it in 2 days (a personal best)!

The book is a very detailed account of Jon Krakauer's expedition to Mount Everest in 1996 which killed 8 people on May 11. Jon a veteran mountaineer is contracted by the Outside online magazine to go on an Everest expedition to write an account of the commercialization of Mount Everest, however Jon convinces the bosses at the magazine to have him climb to the summit.

Jon about his experiences and the deaths during the expedition for the Outside online magazine and that evokes a major backlash from fellow climbers of the expedition and surviving family members. Jon then writes this book after more extensive research and conversation with fellow climbers to clear the facts.

It is a fascinating book that is chilling, revealing and full of lessons that you can learn from the experiences and psyche of climbers that embark on Everest expeditions.

The book contains many revealing facts about Everest expeditions.

For instance, did you know that climbing Everest from the Nepali (South Eastern) side is considered easier than climbing from the Chinese (North Eastern) side though (at least until a while back) it cost a lot less (about 50% lesser) to climb from the Chinese side (that's right, Chinese is cheaper even for the Everest).

It was revealing to learn also that Everest is no exception to littering as a result of a very large number of commercial expeditions (read tourist expeditions). But at least they are doing something about the littering on Everest and every expedition is expected to bring back a certain quantity of garbage back when they return. Also they are attempting to limit the number of ascents in a year. Would be nice (though far fetched i guess) if we started doing something like this at the popular tourist destinations in India.

Few thoughts that stuck with me from the book were how it is sometimes not such a big deal (at least among the mountaineering community) to scale the summit (especially with modern tools & bottled Oxygen), what is more important is to make it back alive to tell the story.

I may never even come close to climbing even to Everest base camp, at approx 17000 feet (will conveniently blame it on my fear of heights) however the importance of sticking to the planned time of descent whether everyone in the team made it to the summit or not is something that i will never forget. A failure to do this fact probably led to some of the deaths on Rab Hall's team. Made me think about the importance of establishing threshold limits in every plan and ruthlessly & unemotionally taking a decision on hitting these thresholds.

It was stunning to read how tremendous personal drive (almost to the extent of selfishness) propels these climbers as they push themselves closer to the Summit and they don't have time to pause for fellow climbers that may be in trouble on the way up.

The images and experiences of Rob Hall, Scott Fischer, Beck Weathers, Andy Harris, Yasuko Namba, Doug Hansen, Ang Dorje, Lopsang Sherpa, Jon Krakauer & their fellow climbers will always stay with me.

The book is a must read if you are interested in adventure expeditions and what you can learn from them.

Now, I am looking for a movie version of the book that i could buy. If you do come across this please let me know.

Rediscovering Indrajal

The other day P and i took a visiting uncle and aunt of mine over to the Blossoms book store on Church street. I went about hunting for any copies of the old Indrajal comics that i could lay my hands on. I was thrilled to find well preserved copies of Phantom, Mandrake, Bahadur, Flash Gordan and Buz Sawyer, each about Rs.30 but i think worth the bargain. It was so nostalgic to flip through them. I was so thrilled to have found them and i sketched them, the first sketches of these heroes after i re-discovered them in my adult life.

Losing & retrieving your railway tickets for dummies (and you are one until it happens to you once or until you have read through this post)

How to lose and retrieve an Indian Railway train ticket in 7 steps

1) If it is an internet ticket feel free to lose it as long as you are close enough to PC with an internet connection and a printer

2) If it is not an internet ticket a good time to lose a railway ticket is between 8 PM & 8 AM (the following day) on any day between Monday to Saturday or after 2 PM on a Sunday. That way it is less likely that someone else can find your lost ticket and cancel it to collect money because the reservation office is closed at other times. So your name will be on the reservation chart and this is a precondition for issuance of a new ticket.

3) It is generally good to keep note of the PNR number, typically note it in something that you would not lose on the same day.

4) Don't panic, but if you are the panicky kind or have panicky folks around you; who need reassurance from Indian Railways then call the railway helpline and explain the situation and ask for directions. You may be actually glad to hear the (otherwise annoying) customary call center greeting "This is the Indian Railway enquiry service, how may i assist you?", for once.

5) Approach the railway station master with a letter seeking issuance of ticket (stating the PNR number and name/age of passengers).

6) Let the official machinery carry your application through it's conveyor belt. It is slow but well oiled machinery so wait patiently.

7) Pay the railway fee for re issuance of lost ticket (it used to be 50% of the original ticket fare) and collect your new ticket

If you were like me then you have been conditioned to believe that you have to offer more than just your gratitude to government officials so you would go ahead and enquire if there is "any other fee" that you need to pay.

If all railway officials are like the kind that i met at Thrissur railway station that evening (and i would like to believe so) you would see them almost take offense to your suggestive offer and they'd just tell you, "it is your ticket and you paid for it, so just go ahead and board the train".

My appreciation of the efficiency of the railway department and the confidence that systems still work in there are at an all time high at the moment.

Seriously, losing a train ticket was probably never such a pleasant experience.