My India.... I am back

Looks like i missed 2011, the first blog i wrote in 2007, next in 2009 so following the line i guess, i missed 2011. But this is not the reason why i want to start writing again in 2012, on a personal level looks like i am near a milestone of my life's journey so far. So I thought it will be good to register and mark the journey.
I started the whole blog because of my wife Ramya after our marriage in 2006. We had Rishi in the winter of 2007, Rishi's years are documented well in Ramya's blog, blog spot. random thoughts. We moved to India from US in 2011 summer and completed living in Pune, India for a year now.
  Sometimes you dont have quite good reason for your actions in life, like that i didnt have any convincing reason to come back to India, but it was always in the back of mind urging to come back to India, so we are now here. The India I left 10years back was different from the one now i am in. Many things have changed, including peoples perspective, living style and not to mention the luxuries of life. Many a times it makes me feel like i am totally lost in the rapidly changed, unevenly grown, unstable India, my beloved home.
   A huge disparity in society, increased crime rate, people lacking basic self-discipline, lack of cleanliness (spitting everywhere), driving condition on Indian roads, expensive school education, corruption with any government office dealings, young generation who cant read books in their mother tongue,  kids who are virtually active but physically obese, everything is disappointing and dejecting. But still i want to be here and feel like i have come for a mission, which i dont know yet.Well so much for the returning statement (both to India and Blog), I will try to continue with my scrap book in the coming days.
   

Its hiking time

Hi
Its been a long time i blogged. Many things were happening in life and got drifted with time. I had a son Rishi in 2007 and now he is 18 months old. Quite a change in life. I had little forced vacation in India, while i was going through lots of uncertainties. Well we are back to Oregon and settling down. Summer is a great time here for hiking and wonderful scenaries.
SO to break the monotonous schedule I and Ramya decided to start hiking every week end with our 18 month old. We both love nature and trying to make Rishi also interested in this. So far we have done four hikes together and one on my own.
We live in the suberb of Portland, Oregon. THere is a beautiful river flows through Portland called Willamette and merges with Columbia river couple of miles north of the city. Columbia river gorge cuts through cascade mountains and divides Oregon and Washington states. This columbia river gorge is the amazing place anyone will fall in love immediately. In fact i was so moved by the place and is one of the reasons i moved here. SO first three hikes we did in Columbia gorge.

Horse Tail-Pony tail - Oneanta Creek Hike

Horse tail falls is in the columbia gorge national scenic highway past the famous Multinomah falls and Oneanta gorge. From one side, it looks like a horse tail, hence the name.

Location: Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Multnomah Falls, Oneonta Gorge, Multnomah County
Height: 176 ft. Upper falls : 72 ft
Distance:40 miles from Beaverton
Elevation:
Season: year-round
Difficulty:Easy
Direction to Trailhead: The Horetail Falls trailhead is just 30 miles east of Portland on the Columbia River Scenic Highway. From Portland Drive 35 miles east on I84 to Exit 3/Ainsworth State Park exit, then go west on the Scenic Highway to Horsetail Falls. Park on the north side of the freeway. You can also get there by following the Scenic Highway past Multnomah falls headed east. The trailhead is on the south side of the road right next to Horsetail falls.

The lower falls is quite forceful and you can enjoy the shower on a warm day or after a good hike. The upper falls is called pony tail falls, in regards to its size i guess, it has a path behind the falls under a rocky out growth. It is 0.5miles hike to the upper falls from lower falls with lots of switch backs and a 560ft elevation gain. Past the upper falls the trail takes you around the mountain and into the Oneanta creek. In this trail, there is an excellent view point facing the columbia gorge for colourful pictures. If you continue on the trail for another 1/2 a mile you come to this upper oneanta falls and just before that a fenceless view point of Oneanta creek. If you cross the wooden bridge over oneanta falls, the trail continues on to triple falls. But we stopped our hike up to this point. It was 1 1/4 mile oneway and took us 1 1/2 hrs for us to complete the hike. Forgot to mention, i was carrying Rishi, my 18 month old in a snuggli. I as well as he, along with Ramya enjoyed this hike. This craved us for future hikes, which i will be updating in my forthcoming bloggs.

Life of Martyrs!

It occurred and kindled my thoughts when i was watching Barathi movie today. He was a poet, rebellious patriotic tamil poet lived in the early 20th century. now to the question, do all great thinkers were acknowledged during their lifetime? Probably not. Barathi lived a commoner life with all problems. For that matter many people lived without a trace and became famous by their work much later. So this brings another question to mind, are all the great thinkers are known to the world? or the only who could express their mind. Without doubt only the ones who could express themselves or made known by others.
So a successful life normally doesnt just say a complete life you live but the one that makes others know that you lived a complete one. Okay it is becoming complicated, let me try to segregate the queries, Are the famous people lived a contended and happy life? or Are the great people are really great, this is one part and the other Are all the great people are known to us?
I will continue my thoughts in my next scribble.

Notes to myself

Its a irony why i should write a note to my self, for others to see?
Now we are in a new era of communication, the link between people has taken a new mode, the age of physical presence has been widely replaced by electronic media and it is creating a revolution in the history of mankind. Intelligence is embracing new definitions, the amount of information available in the internet and the people who are creating it are writing new pages in history. No wonder Time magazine has selected you (we) person of the year (2007) for being so resourceful.
So keeping up with time and to be one in the flock, i thought i will register my thoughts and so i am here.
I have varied interest i will try to be coherent.