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This picture
is from a take-off slope near Bir, kangra, H.P where i run my paragliding
operations. about 5 months a year i am based here.
If you on
yahoo chat you can find me there on ID: para_mount_1@yahoo.com
I will be
taking care of this myself there are no secretaries no oakwood paneled
office. Just pine covered slopes and me. You know where the buck will
stop.
My blog
and some pics from recent activitiees:
 
 
These pictures are from a trek, Parvati to Tso Morari. Flying pic is from
spiti
Oct 21st07:
I had a really good fotune with starting of autumn season. got the
contract to teach Army Paragliding team and to organise Indian Army Paragliding
Championship. I was a really good experience to handle a group of 45 student
in three batches of 15 each. this tool place in pithoragarh in uttranchal.
its a nice place to visit and good to fly too. It was very hectic too..me
being me took it very seriously and have worked myself to exaustion..now
i need a break but there is none in near future as i start training in
Bir tomorrow. But then its much better to be too busy that to be idle.
I will post some pictures here soon.
Aug 17th:
had an interesting motorbike trip to ladhak. A very dear friend of mine,
who is commanding NCC air wing sq at amritsar had planned this motorbiking
expedition for cadets and invited me along as guide cum consultant.. by
vertue of my experience in these sort of stuff :). It was interesting
particularly because i was riding with very young punjabi kids who had
no experience in riding motorbike over such a terrain and very lil physical
condetioning also. we had some close calls with altitude sickness in the
group but overall everyone stayed safe and i assume learned something.
I learned something too... to stay petient and instead of just being disgusted
with youngsters attitude and lack of respect..try to lead by example.
on such a short trip its hard to have to earn respect by proving everything..but
i guess there is no other way. Youth is sceptic and if u dont lead from
front they wont follow.
 
major success..in
terms of mile stones were:
1. most of the cadets figured out where a spark plug was on their bike..how
to open it and clean it.
2. Some even figured out how to open Air filter and tighten the chain
drives.
3. As group they learned they can manage to feed themselves better than
just maggi noodles and choclate drink.
So in the end... bersides being guide i also ended up being a cook and
their mother..lol.. I really hope they retain something of what they learned.
They were good bunch of kids and pretty lucky i guess to have done something
like this at their age.
more pics here>> ALBUM
July 10th:
I have been staying put at home spending time with family and my daughter
specially, was much overdue. But something to plan for soon..on 23rd i
am leaving for another motorbike trip to leh and back. This time i am
guiding an expedition by NCC air Force wing Amritsar. 12riders. Looking
forward to it. Will post some picture after coming back.
June 20th:
I cried today. yup did. was watching X-games and watched competition build
up to third round to a stage where everyone was evaluating risk to winning..
and Travis went on to do a double back flip, first ever ..as far as i
could make out from his comments and body language, even he gave himself
a 50-50 chance of coming out of it on both feet..and he still did it.
His mom was there watching.. it was a very heady mix of feeling if u try
relate to it. its on You tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z02GDd-XOZ0
May 12th:
Just wound up the training season in Bir for spring 07. had nice time
this season. one or two student kept coming in though i still havent got
any approval from himachal govt to run my paragliding school. On other
hand hungarian association has recognised my school and now i can certify
my students via hungary. Finaaly i can give my students some internationally
certification (IPPI certifications) ....so a step forward.
 
some training
site images....last pic is me explaining finner concept at a Dhaba..my
korean student is finding something funny :-?
April
20th: I
did go to Australia for world championship thanks to Axis para (for
wing) and small help by GM... reached location on the day Eva got
sucked up in cloud to 9500m, infact i didnt know abt it till people at
railway station in Tamworth asked me how it can happen. Well in the practise
week before the comp i flew 3 flights..all of them my best distances so
far, 135, 145-150km respectively. it took me more than a day to hitch
hike back everytime tough. Aussies dont trust hitch hikers :( even ones
with paraglider bags..in europe it was easy to get lift with glider bag
on ur side) . day comp started weather went bad. i could fly well over
flat land in strong condetions but in those ultra weak condetions it became
just too tactical for my experience level. Only task i ended up happy
with was second one.. where i ended in 50th position..in top 1/3 atleast.
I was very expensive trip and i will be working rest of the year to repay
my debts... some expenses on this comp were just unreasonable so it pinches.
 
i have been
teaching in Bir since i came back.. got two more students before season
ends. i dont think i will be able to afford any more competetions unless
i can get full sponsorship. And presently i got no plans for summer..lets
see which way the wind will blow
Jan 14th
2007: I havent been able to find any sponsorship for participation
in worlds now i am borrowing from friends to be able to go (so far faised
only 45% of the budget i need). I will spend rest of year working to pay
this off I guess. Workwise good news is that my
paragliding school has been recognised by an european nation's national
association and i will be able to give my students internationally acceptable
certification. It means lot more paperwork for me though ;(..lol no i
am happy that my tudents will finally be able to fly unharrased.
Paradox is that though a european association is finding me competent
himachal tourism doesnt think so. I guess the european association isnt
bothered abt wheather i have permission from SADA and weather i teach
theory in a lecture room of standard size with approvel from PWD. ALL
EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION IS CONCERNED WITH IS WHAT I TEACH AND HOW WELL I
TEACH IT.
One more
good news to share, Axis Para has generously lent me a very nice
competetion wing for the worlds. Thank you AXIS and thank you Adie for
making it possible. I will try to fly good enough to do justise to this
generosity
Dec 8th
2006: was able to teach in bir for autumn season though no official
registration has be given. But what to do. Now at home..plan to learn
snow boarding with my daughter if it snows before xmass holidays. I have
qualified to be on Indian team to 10th Paragliding world championship,
happening in australia in feb 2007. looking for sponsors and help.
Nov 2006:
Had to come back to Bir, couldnt twach foreign student in uttranchal
site due to military area restrictions, didnt participate in comp held
by himachal tourism and the russian guy, Nikolay, couple other good indian
pilots stayed away too. i wish other indian pilots would think seriously
before promoting activities planeed by deptt of tourism in view of such
sport unfriendly rules and their execution. But then everyone makes their
own decision and lives by consequnces.
Sept 2006:
Back in India and what hit hardest on return was corruption... welcome
to india, Found a new site in uttranchal, seems like a good site for X-coutry
flying and tandem ops. Wish there would be some site outside himachal
i can use for teaching.
July 30th
2006: After flying in France with very nice friendly and very good
pilots i was off to Slovenia for participating in slovenian open. Drive
through the alps deviding that part of france from italy was very nice..but
north italy was bit too constructed and too industrial for my taste stopped
at Lake Grada..even the camping sites were prohibtively expensive and
crowded (this was holidays pariod in Europe). As soon as we hit slovenia
the view got better, less crowded and nice quite villages. i really loved
this country. As for comp..had fun flying.. made only one mistake and
it did cost me..ended 5th in serial class and 41st over all in field of
82..not bad but working on making it better.
 
June 20th
2006: I
have been in france now for close to a month, time passes qickly. Went
to laragne last week and was part of organising team for Ozone chabre
open.It was a great week. I was helping organisers and was official wind
dummy; that is the guy they launch when they not sure condetions are good
enough. So you get kicked off early and have to work really hard to stay
up in air till condetions become good and rest of ppl can launch. Now
you know why they call it wind dummy, you got to be a dummy to accept
the job. ha ha but its good practise and good way to be part of competition
without paying registration fee. Here some pics for the week:
May30th 2006: After spending two weeks in Delhi chasing visas I am in France now. In Grenoble, a small town at the western edge of alps in southern france. Its surrounded by mountains anf has pleanty of paragliding sites around it. also a destination for hiking, mountain biking and motorbiking. So far i have Just been spending time with friends. WE had a nice picnic on sunday afternoon after meeting up in sunday market and shopping for eatables there. tomorrow i will go flying if wether permits.
May 8th
2006: Still in punjab, passport arrived now preparing for visa application,
tetetively planing to go to france on 23rd. Meanwhile a friend is discovering
himselfand the world (my guess is he is discovering a lot about himself
too) on the road. Bharadwaj is riding his karizma around the world. Presently
in Turkey, we planning to meet in france soon and exchange notes. this
quote was sent by him ""When you have done all these things,
and can yet stand unmoved in the shallow, weltering storm of words which
issue from small minds, with the quiet humility and certitude borne of
hard-won experience, while those about you crow and caw of their accomplishments
and credentials, then you will not only have become a motorcyclist you
will have become a man."
| April27th
2006: I have been home mostly for last week doing domestic things,
enjoying company of my family and refreshing my cooking skills. Today
I had to go visit Passport office in jallandhar. I must say I went
very angry as I have been having tough time getting a duplicate passport
(yes lost old one). I had applied in Feb. and after about 6 weeks
I got my application returned saying draft I attached is not for right
bank (it was from HDFC). then I went and submitted in cash after standing
in Que. for 4 hrs and there was some drama with colour of my file
not being right. So understandably I went angry today as after five
weeks of submitting my police inquiry hasn't even been sought yet.
I first went through normal process on filling inquiry forms and all
then I changed my mind and played my national level sportsman card
with police wallas and got into office of passport officer. I must
say after my introduction I treated me real well and listened to my
problem took adequate notes and gave me firm appointment of 3pm tomorrow.
I was quite impressed and all the way on drive back I was thinking
of problems this nice officers must be facing beating the system that
has evolved around public offices like this. Next on my list of things
to do is repair the fish pond we have in my courtyard..pic of it,
when it was made new, its not a work of art but did it myself :) >. |
 |
April
19th 2006: I never got around to going to Ankita's village and give
her her birthday present. now i am home, in punjab, no mountains outside
my window now and no flying. i am filling my day with sorting my bank
matters and getting new passport (yes lodst old one), stuff like that.
i can go in deprassion very quickly once i am confronted with these aspect
of life so dont worry if tone of my blog changes. i always come out of
it ;). There is a really good news for all those who liked my interaction
with ankita and been looking into this blog to catch up on latest. one
of my ex student (paragliding) has offered to sponsor her training , both
courses, once she is old enough. he writes "Finally, you can keep
this implanted in your memory somewhere. When Ankita is 15 and ready to
fly, I'll sponsor her till she qualifies intermediate". So ankita
got a present for her 14th or 15th birthday already.
April
14th 2006: I flew a tandem paraglider yesterday with a young Austrian
boy, around 14, I guess. Nice, young, athletic and enthusiastic person,
kind we see as easy passenger to fly with :). The kind that don't freeze
on take off and really enjoy the experience. His parents had come along
and obviously his mother was having jitters she asked me "will you
bring my son back safely' looking me square in eyes, her features had
gone softer at that moment and there was that look in her eye. Right answer
that i was trained to give in my training in UK is that 'we are using
best equipment, we have backup chute, i am trained to..... but its still
adventure sports and things can go wrong. I will keep safety top in my
priorites" we are told to give this answer in western countries as
there are legal issues with liability and insurance companies insist we
say it like this. At that moment when she was looking at me like that
all i said was 'I will'. To me, at that moment, this appeared to be the
only answer. i hope they understood that my answer reflected my commitment
to keep their son safe and wasn't a gaurentee. Well anyway we had nice
flight , smooth evening conditions, a sun set on horizon and pleanty of
kids on field to welcome us when we landed almost chasing us on our final
glide. Got me thinking that paragliders are perhaps the only aircraft
that have string of happy excited kids running after them on landing glide
:)
 
April
11th 2006: Weather has been bad for few days, today was fine, infact
today was a great day for flying but i had and argument another pilot
a british guy who is agressively trying to do business in tandem flights
in Bir and is so agressive in his selling that he goes around ruining
other peoples reputation with loose comments. I dont like arguments but
sometime you have to confront people if they push you far enough. Well
did what I had to do but it left me so irritated that i decided not to
go flying with a troubled head and went for a big walk 14km through the
forest to Sherabilling Monastry and back. Didnt have any epiphany there
:) but exercise helped and now after a shower felt cool enogh to write
this. i am planing to go fly to Ankita's village again and take her birthday
present with me in advance.
Google is picking this site and i tried everything adding site map, removing
all errors that might be interpreted as malicious. Sending post for re-incl
assuming that google banned me. Does anyone know how i can get this site
indexed. This is the thing when some particular searc engine gets so popular
that its a monoply then it isnt fair to net user. my site was picked up
by yahoo in three days but not by google so far. But since everyone uses
google it cant get hits, give this a thought.
April7th
2006: Had some good weather for teaching in last few weeks and for
a while no problems. Then like it normally does, good things came to an
end. Someone is staking claim to the training slope we have been using
for years. He is not producing any documentation for claim, just threatening
to burn our gliders :). Well season is nearly over, so packed up with
basic courses till this blows over. Still teaching higher levels though.
Yesterday, was a great day for flying and some friends flew big distances.
i couldnt go chase them as i was teaching and had to stick to takeoff.
was feeling bit low. by the time i took of sun was nearly setting and
it was windy, no hope for finding rising aircurrents we call thermals
so just glided out over flat land, still feeling bit disapointed. Just
sitting in my harness there , seeing the sun set in front of me, clourse
of senset light on montains all around be, clouds orange with evening
light, smooth wind bit cold,just stinging my cheeks a bit, feet off ground.
i realised how good i have it, how lucky i am. What a way to end a day
at work. How many people end their work day like tis.
April3rd
2006: Still in Bir and flying (and teaching flying). One of our co
flyer, a french pilot had birthday today. He is leaving today so we celebrated
yesterday. Some serious partying was involved, cant go into details here
:). Infact besides this french friend another very dear friend of mine
had birthday yesterday. so happy birthday Flo, happy birthday Maud !!:).
Few of our co flyers were arrested few days back and fined. But then there
passports were punched with nails rendering them invalid. We talked to
few law experts but most were of opinion that it cant be done. Well I
am no law expert. Personally I will feel much more proud of my country
if we can actually find and punish killer of Jassica Lal rather than arresting
few hobby flyers who couldnt get all the paperwork together.
March31st2006:
Presenty I am in Himachal in a village called Bir. i am paragliding here
and also teaching paragliding.
this is likely to go on till april third week. I will post some picture
of this soon. Today after teaching in morning (7.30am to 12.30) I went
flying at a new site about 30km south of Jogindernagar. Had nice flight
landed in a village where no paraglider has landed so there was lot of
intrest in locals. I made a new friend, her name is Ankita Thakur, her
village is called Kothee and she is 8 yrs old. wants to learn flying,
i asked her to call me when she is 14 or 15, as for paragliding minimum
body weight requirement is there. left my phone number with her dad. I
hope she calls, her eyes could almost reflect what world looks like from
a birds point of view. |
