#2 : Lodge, Peak, and everything else in between

Just got back from a wonderful weekend up in the White Mountains, where we (thankfully!) didn’t camp for a change, rather stayed at the beautiful AMC Lodge at the base of Mt. Cardigan. Part of AMC’s Winter Hiking Program, the trip gathered some 65-odd hikers just like us and involved numerous hikes, a bonfire, bunk beds, fireplace happy-hours and lots of delicious food that we didn’t have to cook ourselves! Still a newbie, I often get overwhelmed by all the gear required for winter hiking as opposed to 3-season – numerous layers, crampons, snowshoes, micro-spikes…etc etc.. As a result I was a little frazzled by the time we hit the road on Friday evening after work. Driving in the dark through winding mountain roads is also disorienting, so by the time we reached the Lodge I was feeling somewhat lost and tired. It was only while driving back this afternoon, that I realized what a scenic drive it was up to the Lodge! Anyways, we checked in Friday night, claimed our beds, marveled at how cozy and clean the Lodge was, and went to bed early. Well, or so I thought – for the next hour I desperately tried to blank out the three snoring men (including Abhi) who slept all around. Of course, he vehemently denied the next morning that he was  one of the culprits -  rather his sleep was sooo disturbed by the snoring of the rest of the dorm-mates (including me!!). Nonetheless, after a hearty breakfast we quickly chose between the trail options to select the challenging ascent up Mt. Cardigan. There were 5 hikes in all and our group ended up with 14 hikers. The lodge was consumed with the frenzy of so many people packing their gear, putting on layers, filling up water bottles and meeting at assigned trailheads.

It was a beautiful day- a light snow was coming down and one could clearly see the shapes of the snowflakes, gather like dust on all our clothes. Abhi & I didn’t have micro-spikes so the early part of the trail was a little slippery, especially as it got steeper. Almost 1 mile in, we decided it was getting too dangerous to go on without any traction, so out came the crampons! It took a while to put them on, but thereafter no more slipping or sliding (or atleast less of it!). The trail got even more steep and exposed, and as if things couldn’t get any more adventurous,the leaders realized that we had lost our way! To get back on the right trail we ended up bushwhacking (that is literally stomping and squeezing through not-so-friendly bushes and branches). I was sure that something or the other, carabineer-ed all around me was going to rip off during this detour but miraculously it all stayed in place. More astonishingly, none of us actually fell off the steep rocky ridges as we hung on to frail tree roots for dear life. There was a lot of tush-push (new trail vocab!) at challenging spots and thankfully after a grueling 45 minutes we were back on track. To add some spice to the experience, Abhi’s crampons decided to misbehave right through the bushwhack. They were mistakenly set to be a wee-bit longer than required and needed to be taken off, re-adjusted and put back. Unfortunately, there was no time to take a break and do all this. Once back on track he did get a chance to fix them, and was a lot happier and less grumpier from there on . We were soon at the summit of Firescrew Mountain, which had breathtaking views despite cloudy weather (can’t imagine what it would be on a clear day!). Further up the ridge we could see the summit of Mt. Cardigan, unmistakable with its ice-capped fire-tower. It was very windy and cold up at the top and we couldn’t stay for too long due to fear of over-exposure. Therefore after quickly conquering the summit we headed down a steep slope to ‘High Cabin’ where we ran into another group of hikers who planned on staying there overnight. The remainder of the trail was less strenuous though fatigue was quickly setting in. I ate like a hog all through the hike and was amazed by how much food & water I ended up consuming. We were back at the Lodge after having been out for almost 6 hours and I was quite ready to settle down by the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate. And that is precisely what I did as the dinner table was being set up.

After dinner all the groups did a little song n dance describing their experience. Ours involved some choir-singing, a short skit, a bear, and believe it or not, a lot of swearing in Hindi and French! We walked out to sit around the bonfire for a while and were soon ready to call it a day. Surprisingly, I slept really well the second night – oh yeah, they were all still snoring – I was just too tired to notice! The second day we did a shorter, albeit really scenic hike through the woods and got to use our snowshoes. Back at the Lodge by 1pm, we soon hit the road for Boston. Once out of the hills, our phones came back to life and lo & behold! to our utmost shock there were almost 30 missed calls & as many voicemails on them! Unbeknown to us there had been a great deal of anxiety over our disappearance back in India a la desi-shtyle, with both sets of parents trying to reach our phones. Not being able to get through the dead zone, they had called up almost all our US friends and relatives stopping just shy of launching a full-blown search-and-rescue mission!! Parents, parents, parents..sighhh. I must admit it does feel really nice to think that atleast someone will notice if you fall off the face of the earth (literally) although at times you wish just not so much . Thank God they are not yet on Facebook! So now everyone knows we went hiking this weekend and how irresponsible we were to have not called home(Yikes! -I really thought the Lodge would have phone range, really!)….nonetheless, it was all so much fun..including listening to all the chiding, and making ten phone calls to India at midnight IST! For all of them and everyone else --this blog hopefully fills in on the details

En route

So right now seems to be the best time to try out blogpress on my iPhone. I have about a half hour to kill at the DC airport and have already done the usual- walked around in vain search for veggie food, eaten lots of junk food instead and wasted time on FB. I still have to get the hang of typing on this teeny tiny keyboard- so this post will be short !

Traveling to DC always reminds me of
how uncomfortable the heat n humidity combo can be, and surprisingly makes me appreciative of the the cooler temps in Boston. Yet I do enjoy being out on site and getting a break from the tedium of going to office everyday. DC is so very DC though- buses are emblazoned with political messages and all day long today (as on most previous trips) I could hear helicopters, most probably carrying dignitaries, whirring past in the sky above the site. On one of the past trips we actually dined next to Al Franken (I know I know- not exactly a political celebrity but still !)

So typing on this isn't as bad as I thought! And now I want to sit back and enjoy the live tv on my jet blue flight! So adieu - looking forward to home :)

Pins & Needles

Enthused by my blog post about the i-phone cover, here’s to some more summer sewing!

I learnt to sew from my mom when I was a kid. I wonder how many people would relate to this, but back in the day sewing machines used to be a part of most bridal trousseaus. So, there were two sewing machines at my house- an USHA model that dated back to my parents wedding and a SINGER model that dated way back to my grandparent’s wedding!! Yep, it really was that old—and surprisingly worked better than the more recent machine :) When I was still in primary school, my mom attended sewing classes and I would routinely tag along. I thoroughly enjoyed getting pampered by all the women there & being surrounded by colorful fabrics, threads and motifs. The classes resulted in some wonderful frocks and nightgowns for me and my sis. However, as the years went by she got less and less time to sew and the machines were relegated to basic mending tasks. The fact that they would routinely break down didn’t help either. Being a true mechanical engineer to the core, my Dad would take it upon himself to fix them, every time they broke. And since he got time mostly on the weekends, we were quite used to the sight of a sewing machine lying ‘ripped’ open on our dining table with strict instructions to leave all the parts untouched. There was a revival of sorts when my sis took a summer sewing class years later and I got to help her with all her projects –even managed to make a backpack for myself!

Since then I had always wanted to own a techy computerised sewing machine. Abhi declared I had gone nuts when I disclosed my ambition after we moved to Boston 3 years back. He finally conceded that yes, there was enough room in our 1-bed apartment, and yes,I would manage to squeeze in hobby time with office et al. And shortly thereafter I was the proud owner of one—I didn’t want a super complex version so went with a beginner model (it’ll still take me years to learn all the features and in-built stitches). As excited as I was when it arrived, I have to admit it has been difficult to find time to sew. I want to finally be able to stitch my own clothes (more importantly find the time to do that) , but my sewing skills are still in infancy and patternmaking for clothes is pretty challenging! Apart from mending various clothes, I have stitched 2 things from scratch—a bedding set and a skirt (see snaps)!! What has been thoroughly enjoyable is browsing through sewing / craft blogs and websites – most are put together so creatively!

While not strictly a sewing blog check out etsy.com for wonderful handmade stuff! Enjoy!

I-phoned !

After years of resisting the smartphone charm & successfully ignoring all the blackberrys, iphones & droids out there, I finally gave in this past weekend - and that makes it totally blog-worthy, especially after a long hiatus! It all happened with such amazing randomness & haste that it I’m still in the can’t-believe-I-have-one phase..:)
So we were returning from Gloucester on Saturday evening & wondering if we should stop for coffee before hitting home, when Abhi randomly blurted ‘Want to go get your Iphone?’ That was really a no-brainer—Coffee or Iphone ?! I pounced on the opportunity. For context sake, I have to confess I had been cribbing for the past few months about the lack of internet access on the road. And yet, we decided to go on without a smartphone- firstly because we successfully HAD for so long, and secondly, because we already had a contract & you have to be ‘eligible’ for one of these smartphones & even then they can be just a tad ‘pricey’! So well, we had been officially ‘eligible’ for a few weeks & my cribbing had accelerated to a constant nag, which is why I suspect Abhi made the surprise offer. In a matter of minutes we were at the glitzy, glassy Apple store in Back Bay. Now I thought, I was way way behind in catching on to the Iphone fad, but when I was told to patiently stand in a line that wrapped around half the store floor to get my Iphone, I realized the mania was still very much ON. We waited patiently for almost an hour before a sneaker-shorts-clad dude whisked us away & brought out the Iphone 4 packed neatly in its tiny little box. My excitement level was on the rise and only grew higher when he executed the entire transaction including swiping my credit card right on his I-phone. However one might feel about Apple, you have to give it to them on the coolness factor! As my battered Sony phone of the last 3 years breathed its last moments, it did pose a striking contrast to the flashy new replacement. Oh well! 
So have I been totally consumed by the Iphone the past 3 days ? Both yes & no..Let me explain-Sunday was spent in making a phone case (check out the snaps!)—so while it was all meant for the Iphone, my time was actually consumed on the sewing machine. I have yet to figure out my way around a lot of things..but the apps are definitely cool—so cool that I missed my subway stop for only the second time in 3-years coz I was busy exploring (the first time I had dozed off in the T!). I love the graphics – still have to figure out typing :(..which is why the blog’s happening on the laptop. I do know though -  ‘There’s an app for that !’

Budday & Lion King

‘Birthday’ is kind of a difficult word to say. No wonder most people (especially back home) wish each other' ‘happy bird-day!’ or ‘birth-aye’ or sadda punjabi ‘ happi budday’. And since Americans omit most syllables anyways, I bet they never bother with mouthing out the whole word  either. So last week was Abhi’s budday. I baked a cake (yep, right from scratch!) for the event—and since I don’t  bake much, I sure was a nervous wreck until it emerged all puffed up from the oven. In retrospect it was quite a fun activity, especially the part where I got to pour hot boiling frosting over the cake and watch it drizzle down the sides.There is of no denying that birthdays are best when you are a kid. I remember planning for days on end what I would wear to school on my birthday, the candies I would take to distribute in class, and spend hours decorating even the basket that would hold the sweets. Of course, now birthdays are just a pinching  reminder of how awfully soon we are getting old.

Abhi’s Budday timed perfectly with a plan to go see the Lion King Broadway musical playing at the Boston Opera House. Even for the uninitiated, its hard not to recognize the iconic opening lyrics of the Circle of Life “Nants ingonyama bagithi baba…..” (which I had to look up online cause it doesn’t sound like this at all when they shout it out). By the way it means, “Here comes a lion, Father”. Before I talk about the musical though, the spectacular building that hosted it deserves a comment—as I am told, the present-day Boston Opera House, was originally built as a movie theatre and also showcased some live vaudeville. Extensively renovated in the 1980’s, the theatre is built in the French & Italian Baroque style –which essentially implies a highly ornate & opulent style of building. The Opera House is just that—gilded marble columns, rich ornamentation and red wall fabric add the right sense of drama & history. The play itself was visually stunning and artistically innovative. Interpreting an entire jungle with its flora & fauna on stage can be quite a challenge—but the play managed to pull it off with a flair. My personal on-screen favorite was the sequence when Simba’s dad speaks to him in his dream. His father’s ghost is represented by a giant lion’s face that gets assembled from separate pieces.  And my favorite ‘off-screen’ moment decidedly was when Simba & his love-interest Nala come close, apparently to plant a kiss on each other lips, and a 6-7 yr old kid in the back row shouted ‘AaaaWww!!’ causing the whole theater to burst into uproarious laughter!

V’Day & Winter Olympics

Today is Valentines Day 2010. It always surprises me why there is so much brouhaha over it in India—despite a repetition of threats from the asinine Shiv Sena goons, thankfully the day was peaceful there. Abhi & I have decided to spend it at home watching lots of TV and resisting the urge to venture out. Last year we did the same, except that at 7 p.m. we finally gave in, got all dressed up and set out to North End – the artsy Italian hub of Boston with numerous ‘happening’ restaurants. In our excitement though, we forgot to acknowledge that other city couples have more foresight. After spending a half hour trying to find street parking, we were forced to park the car in a lot for 25$!! Then we strolled around the crowded restaurant row, peering inside windows, looking over menus, trying to pick just the right place. Our hearts soon settled on one, we walked in, only to be politely asked if we had made a reservation. ‘No’, we replied. “Okay then, you can wait for 2 hours!”..Hmm.. 6 other restaurants just simply refused to entertain walk-ins..Despondent, and frozen after walking in the cold for 30 minutes, I was ready to call it quits, when on our way back, we walked by this cool & ‘very full’ corner restaurant. And as though it was meant to be, we got a spot, right by the window! after waiting for just 15 mins. So yep, we did manage to eat in the North End that night with live music, candlelight et al. But advice in general, be more planned with your V’day voyages.

On a different note though, just watched the Indian luge contestant Shiv Keshavan on TV take his turn on the track. I didn’t know until the opening ceremony that India was even represented in the Winter Olympics and was very pleasantly surprised to discover otherwise! Keshavan actually did a great job—though I know very little about the sport. In fact, after watching footage of the terrible accident 2 days back, I was very skeptical if such a high-risk sport should even be played. However, as Abhi pointed out, most sports have an inherent risk and while such accidents can point the way to make them more safe, it probably doesn’t imply that they be given up altogether.

Ishqiya & More..

Unplanned outings are usually fun - so when Abhi proposed going out for 'Ishqiya' an hour before the evening show yesterday--I couldn't let it pass. Plus, I really admire Vishal Bhardwaj for the creativity & innovativeness he brings to Indian cinema. The reviews had been lukewarm--yet we were excited to watch it for ourselves. Indian movies play at this shady, worn-out multiplex in Cambridge--its probably a left-over from the 70's, with crappy screens, sound system and VOC-laden furnishings. Yet, when you really don't have a choice, it's easier to make the trip. It seemed like we were going to have the hall all to ourselves when we walked into the deserted theatre, but soon about ten more desis streamed in. The movie started promptly at 7.00. A couple of minutes passed and the glaring ceiling lights didn't dim as expected. A few more minutes went by and we looked around, frantically gesturing to the projection window behind. Ten minutes in, Abhi decided to take a walk to the counter outside. And as expected---they had forgotten that our movie had begun :) So lighting matters sorted, the movie progressed uneventfully till ‘Intermission’. Lights and radio  came on and everything was hunky-dory except that 5 minutes passed, then 10, then 15 and it started to feel like an eternity. Abhi was all set to venture out again when I noticed activity in the projection room upstairs. Movie was soon back on track—at almost 2 hours it was a short B’wood movie and thankfully played without subtitles. Imagine Vishal Bhardwaj dialogues in translation! So, my thoughts about the movie—firstly, it was a very entertaining watch, although not one of his best works. Yet, judged independently, the movie has a unique storyline, great characterization and acting, innovative dialogues, a very keen portrayal of contemporary Indian life and is beautifully situated in its geographic context.

I am getting ready to watch the opening of the Winter Olympics on TV, so this post has to end fast! Before I sign off though, I started a companion blog to Nayi-Taazi yesterday titled Lost & Found—to focus primarily on issues related to architecture & preservation. Hard as it is (at least for me) to find time even for one blog, I hope to keep them both alive and find opportunity and content to share from time to time :)