Première randonnée au Canada

(First Hiking in Canada)
It was 13th of June 2009.
I was planning to have sleeplong kind of winding up of week's work. So, had kept myself away from the Hiking, which was planned by our colleagues. It also had the another reason of not getting myself into activities which takes me off from my routine prayers. But, somehow, I changed my mind.

Time 9:00...
Place: GCS Reception Area...
Hiking team was waiting for their couple of other members to turn up. fast paced footstep sound gave the hint of those two coming in. The entire team boarded the bus. Before taking off, group leader Shishir did a briefing about the trip plan. So, the plan was to reach Powderface by 10 A.M. Join Gary's team and start the Hiking.

Someone gave the idea of playing Dumb Charades. That was a great idea and everyone was interested and it didn’t take any while to start the game. Enthusiasm and Joy was in full, when it was felt that the Bus stopped for something. This was followed by some safety instructions by the driver. Though we continued to play, it was under the Highway Road Laws.

It was almost 10:30, we reached Powderface. Craig was waiting for us there with Gary and team. We were given the plan for the Hiking which included the description of the trail, Do's and Don’ts and introduction of the first contact persons for each cases. Everybody got geared up and we started the hiking at about 10 minutes to 11.

The trail started with a bit lengthy uphill climb. As it was the beginning of the hike everybody was in full smiles. If there was anything which anybody could talk not-so-good about was the weather. It was a bit hotter day. And people carrying their backpacks wouldn’t have felt so good about it. After a while we reached an open place and planned to take some rest and to let the entire team to reach there. For some reason, at any point of time in the hiking, except for the rest times, the team was split into three groups. The swift and energetic lot going in front. The sweeper of the group was always accompanied by a slow paced group. And there was this third or the sandwiched group who was linking the leader and the sweeper group.

We continued the hike, it was nice to walk through a not-so-deep woods. Many trees were fallen, don’t know of what reason. We again had a short stop at the end of the Section 1 of the trail. We had our short eats here.

After re-fueling ourselves, we got into the section 2 of the trail. This part of the hike was pretty interesting one. There was this stream to be crossed. It was a shallow one, with water up to knee level and flowing in a fair pace. But more than this, what everyone liked (?) about this was the coldness of the water. Somebody said, 'it's toe numbing cold.' But I enjoyed it. Kathy too and she wanted to do it once more!!! We waited for everyone to cross the stream, before we continued the hike. It was really nice to see the Bikers crossing the stream.

Most of us having tiring legs, the trail was asking for more. It was narrow and had steeper climbs. Needless to say the distance between any two subgroups of our team was getting longer and longer. It was at this section, I was praising my friend for carrying an additional supply of water, which I was not recommending earlier. Towards the end of the second section we reached the summit of the trail. It was a cliff, giving a splendid view of the foothills of the other side. One side was greenish and at other place it's all just rock. We decided to have a stop there and wait for the entire team (again!!!). The sandwiched group joined shortly, with news of seeing a White-Tailed deer. At last, somebody saw some wildlife in this trail. The leader told us that now we are into the last section. A little about 300 meters of walk and then continuous downward slope are what we have to cover to have this hiking mission accomplished.

So, here we go... for the last lap :) . We walked for sometime and then there was the slope. No, it was really a slide. I felt it was easy, provided you have enough energy, to do the uphill than this downward walk, which needs more of balance than energy.

I should say, the trail was really a multi-faceted one. At some places, it was wider and narrow at other places. Some part, it looked like a beautiful South Indian Village kind, and at some places pretty rough too. Parallel running water stream gave a cooling effect to the air at some places.

Though, it was told to us that this is one of the easiest trails in Calgary, it was not that easy as well. Trail was narrow and rough at places. Bikers in this trail were another thing which caught my attraction. One should really appreciate the skills they possess to do this kind of act. It really surprised me that the two Junior members of our group Kathrine and Ashwin, made the entire Hiking. Credits to their Parents too.

13 Kilometers in 5 Hours... Very bad speed, eh? But not too bad for first time hikers. Our Hiking time was only 3 hrs, rest was our frequent rest times. For sure, we weren’t a team any Hiking lead would like to take for hiking, with the speed in which we covered the trail, which others make it in 1.5 hrs!!!

The silence in the bus was guaranteed as no one really had any energy left. It was surprising, Kathy was still active and she kept on talking...

Am I 'the' hero?

Couple of weeks back, the role change (Job Promotion) exercise happened in the firm I work for and the list was published. It was one of the greatest shock so far in my life, to realize that my name was not in the list. It all starts 8-9 months back.
After a decent performance for that Cycle, I was well portrayed
by my manager and was categorized in the best group of workers of last year in our group. And with a good six months experience of client interaction, I was hoping I'd get the role change last time itself. As usual, Criteria for eligibility were rolled out. Only one condition I was not satisfying , i.e., I was 4 months short of required experience in years. But as common, my name was put forward as an exceptional case.
When the list was out, my name wasn't there. I was told that there were so many senior guys...duh duh duh... But the most contradicting part was all the other criteria except the total years, were breached for many other cases who got promoted. Sigh...
I was determined and didn't want to miss it again. Was pushing myself to all extent (of course that was needed, to see through that my project was done fine). And again came the role change exercise time.
This time too my name was forwarded, but with all its merits. Discussions happened. I was told that I hold a good chance...no... if I say a chance, that's a lie.... I was told, my case was sure and I'll be promoted. The results came, I didn't receive any news. I waited for hours...till the next day...no it didn't come. I got it confirmed from my senior that I am not in the list. (This time too...I told myself...).
But I wasn't ready to agree. Details given to me was, slots were limited so I was denied. All the people who got promoted was of my experience or one or two months more experienced to me. But I could say, I stood well distinct when the recent performances were considered. But no... higher officials had some other plan. You know what... I was given this information that I was rejected because they had performed better than me, 2 years before !!!!!!
Still not able to digest what had happened to me. I cant let myself down. Coz, I'm not a guy who deserves to be down. Even if not the hero, I'm among the heroics and never a zero.
But that doesn't count. People looks from some other angle. When I'm first in the queue, they
look from the tail end!!!!
I could just say, I'm 'a' hero.

An effort well worth

Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God)...
Last Thursday, the project which I was working on, went live. It was such a pleasant gift to see so many smiling faces around me and good wishes mails in my box. As usual, this work also went through so many ups and downs. There were times when I even missed my prayer schedule. Ramdhan fasting was a bit difficult with this project seeking my availability almost anytime. God's grace, all went fine.
The day before our go-live, we got a defect with the code. We had to analyze the code at those dying moments and was finally able to find it out and come up with the solution. The next day, that fix was made and the processes were completed successfully.
The funny thing here was, I was not feeling well and had applied for a half day leave on this penultimate day. I was relaxing at home when I got the call regarding the defect. Then I had to be on call for more than 3 hours. I lost a leave, infact half day leave.
My manager threw us a party at MangoShiva (No offense to anything in this world...this is a name of a restaurant here in Calgary). I enjoyed sea food dinner spiced with Prawns, Calamari, Mussels and Scallops.
Looking back at the 3-4 months of struggle, and the feeling I now have, it makes me believe that it was indeed an effort well worth

Starting here...

I dont know, how long I'm going to continue with this. But, will definitely try. It is an inspiration I got from my friend.
About the Blog-Name... No doubts, it is the meaning of my name.