After years of planning to my dream destination, I finally made it. On 13th May 2012, I landed on Leh

When I landed, I was like.. Mission achieved. “Lands on Leh”

We were a group of four who had planned for trip but unfortunately because of “WORK” other two friends could not make it. This did not make us drop the plan of trip. We continued as planned. Tickets were booked back in January 2012 which saved lot of bucks I must say. We got the tickets in just Ts 8400/- (Delhi-LEH) Return Trip Yeah that was cheap.

Here was our plan for 1 week Trip in Leh-Ladakh, it covered the entire ladakh.

Day 0 (Sat) – Reaches Delhi from Mumbai to Catch Flight from Delhi. Meeting Friends.
Day 1 (Sun) – Lands in Leh (Morning). Rest in Guest House to adjust the altitude. Only sleeps and eats.
Day 2 (Mon) – Tour Ares near Leh – Magnetic Hill, Gurdwara, Indus Sangam, BIKE RIDE
Day 3 (Tue) – Tour the Nubra Valley via Khadungla Pass and stay there for night.
Day 4 (Wed) – Head back to City Leh and rest in evening. Try local foods in evening.
Day 5 (Thu) – Tour the Pangong Lake via Changla Pass. Stay a night there.
Day 6 (Fri) – Head back to Leh City.
Day 7 (Sat) – Explore the Leh City. Shopping and local cuisines.
Day 8 (Sun) – Morning Flight to Delhi. And later in evening head back to Mumbai

[This trip was planned by friend Umesh Gogia, who had a sudden demise just a week before my trip. I dedicated the trip to him]

So Day 1 was supposed to be rest and lots of food. On Monday we hired a bike. Pulsar. Please don go for “Bullet”, they are old and always break down, go for 150 cc bikes that too in new condition. Driving a bike in Leh is magical. It was more awesome than I had imagined

First stop was: “Gurdwara Pathar Sahib”.. about 25 miles away from Leh, on the Leh-Kargil road, 12000 ft above sea level ! Me having the free tea being served there, yes it was awesome as well

There was a Nanak Hill nearby, we climbed it as well. Please climb slowly as oxygen level is less and you wiill be breathless and even faint if you try to climb in one go. The view from that hill is simply awesome.Moving forward we went to Magnetic Hill. Stop the Bike and feel the magnetic effect on bike. After that we headed to Sangam. Gaina scenic beauty that will impress you. It was around noon, after this we headed back to leh in eveining.

Next day ie Tuesday, we dropped the idea of Bike ride to Nubra Valley and hired a Tavera as it was too cold to drive bike in early May than we had imagined, we also got to Foreigners from Norway who where on tour. Thyw where just 23 years old and adventurous like us. On the way was “Khardungla Pass“, world’s highest Motor-able Road. Having Tea at the world’s highest motor-bale road :

Our vehicle broke down at Khardungla pass, it was unfortunate but we had unique experience of spending 4 hours. It did affect our health later the day but it is something we will always remember. We reached in evening and decided to rest, next morning he headed to Hunder – Camel Ride, unique experience and one must try it. Here’s me :

And then we headed back, enjoying the scenic beauty. Tea time :

Next Day we headed Pangong Lake via Changla Pass, a beauty, stuffs of which dreams are made of. At least mine are made of this off only. The peace at this place will simply blow you out:

This place is also the same where “3 Idiots” ending scene was shot. Anyways, it was on my plan from long long time from college.

The amazing trip ended on Sunday, I was so impressed, I will definitely go back again and again there. The people of Leh are very friendly and they don’t cheat like in other hill stations. The Tea is mostly 10 Rs, which is quite worth it. Compared to Tea in Mahabaleshar of Rs 20. Also I tried lots of local cuisines which will be published in separate blog.
So, in short Trip to Leh – Ladakh was awesome

On this auspicious day – 7th November 2011, two of my close friends got engaged. Deepak Malik & Anu Jain.

Snap -

Congrats!

Today, a box of chocolates arrived from a dear friend. Surprising and I am flattered

Cadbury's Bournville is one of my favorite chocolate

Many Many thanks for the special gift!
I cherish and proud to have such a sweet friend
makes me feel so lucky!

Few things go unplanned but it is what you choose in the end.

As they say:

“To have a change you have to be a part of change”

I joined a STPI (Ministry Of Communication & IT) on March 16, 2011 as an Assistant Director. My selection was a big surprise to me. Cracking 3 Seats All-India is never easy and not for people like me.. got to be kidding me. Interview went good and I made it. I had to leave Noida and settle in Mumbai, the sad part. Still trying my best to live in Mumbai, well that’s the other story and also in one of my previous blog.

There were mixed reaction from my friends, me joining a Government Job. My parent were the most happy of it. So I joined. I work for a change where I work and I am already working on lot of changes here. Long way to go. Wish me luck

Finally, after my unsuccessful attempts in CAT, joined M.S. (Software Systems) from BITS Pilani 2011-2013, Distant Education. I always wanted to pursue technical course for my Post-graduate but due to increased job opportunities after MBA, I became more inclined to CAT when I was in final year of my college. I guess why I had a history of failed attempts in CAT While few of my friends joined on the equivalent scores. I never opted for it.

My past year’s CAT Scores:
1. 2007 Attempt (in B. Tech. – Final year) – 91 %
2. 2008 Attempt (in Pioneer eServer Pvt Ltd.) – Will Not Say
3. 2009 Attempt (in HCL Tech.) – 89 %
4. 2010 Attempt (in HCL Tech.) – Will Not Say
5. 2011 Attempt (in STPI) – No More CAT, screw you I am not made for it

So, finally I applied for M.S. from BITS Pilani (Distant Education) and my profile got shortlisted. Yay. Will be doing postgraduate finally. Classes begins from third week of July, 2011. Studies along with work can be tough and will be tough. But, I will manage

On 27th August 2010, I cleared the Sun certified system administrator for 10 OS.

Activities performed by me currently:
· Building, configuring and maintaining Sun Servers (Solaris OS 6/7/8/9/10) & Linux OS (RHEL 4/5)
· Patch and Package administration
· Writing shell scripts to accomplish day to day system administration task
· Installing and Maintaining Solaris Jumpstart environment
· Configuring and administering Solaris Zones and Containers on Sun Solaris 10 operating system
· Basic knowledge on VERITAS Cluster & VxVM
· Printer Administration
· Configuring and supporting domain on Sun Fire Servers
· Sys­log & Log man­age­ment
· Trou­bleshoot­ing Hard­ware and Oper­at­ing sys­tem related issue

Many more certifications to go, one down

Finally!

After 4 years, a new version comes to existence. I had this in mind for long now and finally published today:

Snap:

www.rahulsingh.org

Though I have plans to add a lot in this I will be adding a Resource Section Soon somewhere in the pages, location I have not decide yet.