The Yukon Song

This is one of my Fav poems and is from The Calvin and Hobbes book “Yukon Ho!” by Bill Watterson.

The predominant feeling that comes to my mind when i read this poem is freedom. Freedom from everything and everyone, freedom to live a life that i choose….

THE YUKON SONG

My tiger friend has got the sled,
And I have packed a snack.
We’re all set for the trip ahead.
We’re never coming back!

We’re abandoning this life we’ve lead!
So long Mom and Pop!
We’re sick of doing what you’ve said.
And now it’s going to stop!

We’re going where it snows all year,
Where life can have real meaning.
A place where we won’t have to hear,
“Your room could stand some cleaning”.

The Yukon is the place for us!
That’s where we want to live.
Up there we’ll get to yell and cuss,
And act real primitive.

We’ll never have to go to school,
Forced into submission,
By monstrous, crabby teachers who’ll
Make us learn addition.

We’ll never have to clean a plate,
Of veggie glops and goos.
Messily we’ll masticate,
Using any fork we choose!

The timber wolves will be out friends.
We’ll stay up late and howl,
At the moon till nighttime ends,
Before going on the prowl.

Oh, what a life! We cannot wait.
To be in that arctic land,
Where we’ll be masters of our fate,
And lead a life that’s grand!

No more of parental rules!
We’re heading for some snow!
Good riddance to those grown-up ghouls!
We’re leaving! Yukon Ho!

Chemistry…

I guess it started when I was in my 11^th standard.

I was going for Entrance coaching for IITs at a coaching institute called T.I.M.E. it is around that time that I started falling in love with chemistry. Specifically, Organic Chemistry. I dunno how or why but suddenly carbon atoms, their bonding, their structures, their chemical reaction started making a hell lot of more sense than hyperbolae and circles and calculus and even more than gravitation, electricity and magnetism. Till the 10^th standard, I used to love math and physics and thought of chemistry as just a subject in which you memorize tons and tons of formulae and Latin names. In fact those days, I was actually one of the best in my class at math and physics whereas chemistry never was my strong point at all.

All that changes when I started the coaching at T.I.M.E. The professors there are the best I have seen at one place. They are even better than the one in my College!! For the first time, I understood what it was like to be totally immersed in a subject, to eat, drink and sleep it. There was this one Prof , whom we knew only as Sasi. He was very young man and had the energy and knowledge to teach Organic Chem. But what differentiated him from the other teachers was his enthusiasm. He was like a 4 year old kid with…forget it, when he came to teach chemistry, he was like Calvin with a flame thrower and grenade launcher for Christmas.

This sudden exposure to brilliant teachers changed everything. For the first time ever, I actually started to enjoy studying. I was attentive in all the classes and actually asked doubts. That is one other thing these new teachers developed in me: the taught me that it is not bad to ask doubts. The kind of teaching system we have in India, it is very dangerous to ask too many doubts else you may find that you are receiving unimaginably low marks in your papers. They taught me that doubts SHOULD be asked. Only those who know all or know nothing don’t ask doubts. So I asked doubts. Lot of them. And I still continue asking doubts about any topic that I haven’t understood well.

We had 3 great chem. Profs at T.I.M.E. the first one was the above mentioned Mr. Sasi. The second was Mr. Venu. He worked as a scientist at IISc, Bangalore. Whereas Sasi was an Organic expert, Venu was a Physical Chem. Expert. The third Prof was Mr. Thomas. He was an Organic+Physical expert. Together, these 3 profs ensured that chemistry would remain my favourite subject throughout my schooldays.

I still remember that I used to take the Morrison and Boyd book and just start leafing through it. Soon enough I would find something interesting in the book and then for the next 2 hours I would be exploring some new area in Organic that I had no previous knowledge about. I would even skip studying Math and Physics and go on solving the problems given at the back of M & B. those were fairly complicated Qns and were like,” AAA reacts with so and so at so and so condition and give BBB and CCC. BBB would….and CCC would…” so on and so forth and the last line would be “Decipher the Structures of all the compounds from AAA to SSS.” I am proud to say that I could actually solve these problems. When I would mention this to my classmates in the entrance classes, they would look at me like I was a rabid dog or something. I was not bragging, but then my admiration for chemistry could not be suppressed.

This was a blessing in disguise or a Curse in disguise, I still know not. My love for chemistry totally screwed my IIT hopes to such an extent that I was able to solve every single Organic Chemistry question asked in the practice tests but could not answer a single question correctly from math. In physics, I remember marking a question just for the heck of it and it turned out that I got even that wrong.

Result, I got knocked out of even the screening exam for IIT. Another result, I got interested in Biochemistry and was nuts about Biotechnology and hence took Biotechnology at this college and here I am, in my 4th year, with hopes of getting a decent score in GRE and complete my P.G and (hopefully) my PhD .

I am following my dreams and my interests. Now all I can do is hope for the best.

P.S. my mom will say that instead of hoping for the best I can also try to increase my GPA a little bit. As always, she is true…but….

Change?

This was a diary entry of mine that i dug up today morning…interesting read…

**********

Yo Alter Ego, 12 April, 2007

2:14 AM

So today after doing something, I am thinking, life is so monotonous.

I mean like, what do we exactly do in life which is worth being called a change? Which is actually a little bit different from all the other stuff that you do? As in I wake up every day morning, brush my teeth, take a bath, have breakfast, attend lab, have lunch, attend class again and then back to hostel for food, sit in front of the lappy doing something, then go for dinner and then watch a movie or do something else in my lappy then sleep at around 2 or 3 in the morning, only to wake up at 7 the next morning to continue the boring regimen.

Its all the same. The biggest change that can come about is maybe an exam or a vacation. Still the change is nothing major. I am not doing anything new. I am just living the same old same old life. Maybe it is boring. Maybe it is not. I dunno. Haven’t thought about it till now. Well let’s see what all I can do that will actually qualify for being a real CHANGE.

1) Drop college. Go back home and tell parents that I am sick of life and am going to the Himalayas to spend some quality time meditating.

2) One morning, instead of going to class, unexpectedly pack up and go to your hometown, visit a couple of friends (but NOT my family) and return the next day. (Home being at least 24 hours away by train/bus)

3) Go to town, get a gun from somewhere, go to the hostel roof and practice shooting the treetops.

4) Better still, go to the mess and point the gun at the mess manager’s face and threaten him with a very quick and regretful death (regretful for him, not me) if he does not make good food for at least that day.

5) Scale the wall and try to get inside the girl’s hostel only to fall down senseless after seeing the sights there. (And I don’t think the falling-down-senseless part will be because of ecstasy)

6) Cut off the electricity, water and phone connections to the Vice Chancellor’s house to let him know, at least for just one day, what the students in the hostels have been suffering for the past many many years. Same for the Dean’s(Student’s Welfare) residence and all the other authorities of this college.

7) Steal the watchman’s chair when he is ‘guarding’ the hostel at 4 in the morning. And putting it in front of the institute just before class.

Be able to talk my H.O.D to death at least once for a change.(Instead of him doing the honours every time)

9) Be able to throw my laptop out of the window and actually be laughing about it.

But then we all know that I will not do it.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

But you know what, some day, I just might.

**********

Purpose of Life

One day, during a conversation with my bro, a question suddenly popped into my head. The question was “What is the purpose of life? Not philosophically, but biologically”. At that time, the only answer I got was reproduction. The way I saw it, the only thing that life leaves on this planet when it leaves is progenies. The idea of life existing to convert Carbon dioxide to Oxygen or vice versa, I rejected immediately because it seemed really flimsy. But my bro told me that I was wrong but then I think even he was unable to give an answer at that time (probably because I had asked this Question at the ticket counter of an amusement park and we had already entered the park by the time I finished my reasoning to him). Thereafter this question remained in my mind, unsolved and yet irking me from time to time.

Fast forward 4 or 5 years. I am in college and have learnt about proteins and other biomolecules which helped me reach an answer. Life exists just to satisfy the law of minimum energy (in simple words, according to Wikipedia, “The principle of minimum energy is essentially a restatement of the second law of thermodynamics. It states that for a closed system, with constant external parameters and entropy, the internal energy will decrease and approach a minimum value at equilibrium. External parameters generally means the volume, but may include other parameters which are specified externally, such as a constant magnetic field.”)

Allow me to explain. When I studied proteins, I learnt that all the properties of proteins existed because of its 3-D structure. So you have enzymes and stuff acting because of its 3-D structure. In fact the change of a single amino acid in the protein of hemoglobin changes its shape so badly that instead of hemoglobin, you have sickle shaped hemoglobin and the dreaded genetic disease called sickle cell anemia.

Now the reason that proteins have unique and stable 3-D shapes is because any atom or molecule always tends to be in the stablest and least energy condition. In fact any chemical reaction exists solely to decrease the energy of the reaction mixture. That is, wood burns so that heat and light is released and the entropy of the universe increases according to the second law but the energy of the system (wood) decreases and it becomes charcoal + Carbon dioxide or whatever. In the case of the proteins, the amino acids constituting the proteins have hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts (water repelling and water loving parts) the water haring parts will automatically seek each other out and form simple Van der Waal’s forces of attraction between them. Even hydrogen bonds are formed. All these changes end up decreasing the net energy of the protein molecule and give the protein its unique fold.

Now my line of reasoning was a little weird and it went like, if a protein is so very very important to the body and it exists to decrease the energy of whatever created it, why can’t the human body be sort of the same? After all life evolved as simple RNA molecules which could self replicate. In those terms they are just simple chemical reactions. And they did whatever they did just to be at minimum energy. i.e. to be at minimum energy, they self replicated (reproduced), evolved, grew etc. And in short, they ‘lived’ to be at minimum energy. So is that what life is? Just a bloody chemical reaction designed so that the ‘molecule’ (which is us humans and other animals and plants) remains at minimum energy?

If we continue along these lines, we will be forced to acknowledge that all that we do is has only one purpose: to keep out body at minimum energy. A little weird. Instead of going to Point A directly, if we just feel like going to A in a circuitous way, then that was because of law of minimum energy? Our feelings are all to decrease the energy of the system? I feel happy when I win a computer game because my body has to be at minimum energy? A person feels sexually aroused just to be in a state of minimum energy? Now the biggest bombshell: we fall in love to be at minimum energy? When I see a climbable tree, I feel like climbing it to remain at a state of minimum energy. I go about shouting and expressing my feelings to be at a low energy state?

Maybe my idea is flawed. If it is, tell me.

Now I am in a dilemma. I have just said that life is nothing but a chemical reaction following the laws of thermodynamics. Now I love Life, but I HATE thermodynamics. Can I love the effect but hate the cause?

It really is a magical and world…but weird too!

My College and My Dreams

Human mind is a really weird thing. I am saying this now because just now I realised that I both hate and love my college simultaneously.

Lemme reason:

Reasons to love college:

• Friends. I have an amazing stock of friends here with me in the college. Some are nuts like me, not at all interested in studies but interested in everything else. Some others are the ones who rock at whatever they do, be it studies or games or programming. Some are total nutcases and good for nothing…in short a mixture of all classes.
• The hostels are good and the surroundings areas are brilliant. It is almost like a forest.
• Long vacations blah blah…..

Reasons to Hate College:

• Bloody bureaucracy. It is like a mini Indian Government. For anything that you have to get done, you have to get a signature from Mr. A, Mr. B Mr. C and then again get it checked by Mr. A. When you go to see Mr. D, he is not in his room. When he comes back to his room, you have to wait outside for half an hour before he can finish calling up all his friends from childhood.
• Disregard for student’s demands. We students, in our hostel of 300 ppl, have only one water cooler/purifier. And it is not cleaned even once a month….blah blah…

Well, the interesting thing about humans is that they can very easily start finding the fault in others. Even though I try to avoid doing this, it comes instinctively.

Well it is 10 o clock in the morning right now. When I woke up, first thing I realised that the laptop was on. Shit. That’s the second day in running I slept off without meaning to sleep off. The bed was all filled with junk and somehow I had maneuvered myself into a gap. Still have all the bloody cramps. And here I am sitting in front of my lappy and instead of brushing, the first thing I did was clean up my room.

Interestingly, someone wrote my blog its first comment….cool.

Yesterday night, had a really weird dream. I have noticed something that my dreams are always…monumentous if you get my meaning. You don’t? lemme try to explain. In my dreams, everything is either HUGE or really FAST or really TALL, or really DANGEROUS. This other dream I had involved a GIANT lake/swimming pool in front of a structure that resembled a Maya Pyramid. And the atmosphere was like dull blue in colour as if the skies were really overcast. And I was seeing it from somewhere like the top of the pyramid. And I knew that the lake was dangerous because it had crocs but even then I saw people jumping in for a swim. The whole dream had a cold and dangerous feel to it. They say that you forget dreams within half an hour of waking up. The above dream I described happened at least 4 years ago.

Later…

The Right side of Wrong

Does the end actually justify the means? Our actions may be for the good, but then the path to it may be dirty. It may be ‘bad’ or immoral. But then is the price of that deed high enough for us to stop pursuing the end which is assured to be good?

Remember that if the conflict is between two sides, this argument is applicable for both the good and the bad side. But then the ‘bad’ side as we call it, is it actually bad? Do people of the ‘bad’ side really see themselves as bad? Of course not. They are just like us ‘good’ people. They are only doing what they think is the right thing to do to achieve their end. In fact if we spend some time on this thought, we will find that the other side is no different from us. Just different principles and methodologies to reach what they see is the appropriate end.

As to the path to achieving that end, is the price to be paid for following that path high enough to make the end worthwhile? Again the same question can be asked to both sides. Hence as far as the different sides are considered, what they are doing is right and has to be done since the reward will be higher than the cost. So from this point of view, no one is the ‘bad’ guy. No one is the wrongdoer and no one deserves any punishment since from his point of view, he has committed no offence.

E.g. Jihad. The perfect example. What some people see as terrorism, others see as a freedom struggle. Weird thought it is, once it really sinks in. It really make us question, are not all Indians terrorists or the children of terrorists? After all we Indians were part of a freedom struggle that lasted almost 100 years? Did we not blow up vehicles and people? Did we not kill people whom we saw as threats? Did we not kill officers of the law for revenge? Of course, all this will be from the point of view of the British but then what possibly makes it different from the jihad that the terrorists fight in Kashmir?

It is maybe because of these discrepancies of logic that humans have come up with the idea of MORALS. By setting some ideas as the ‘right’ ones, we are now able to discriminate between the two sides and decide who has the right of the matter. But isn’t the whole idea of imposing morals a step towards discrimination? I think it is the worst form of discrimination, to say that a man is wrong because of his thoughts and ideas. I am not discussing criminals. But for now let us concentrate on the lesser mortals and their lesser crimes.

E.g. 1: President Bush banning abortions and his tirade against Stem cell research citing reasons of ‘killing of unborn human beings’. Bush says that the killing of unborn infants is a sin in itself. Hypocrite that he is, he fails to understand the irony in his statements. I don’t see what gives him the right to talk like that after all that he has done in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ok, maybe I am digressing, but what right does he have to talk about killing of unborn infants when he is a non vegetarian? Does he realize that the breakfast he had probably had an unborn chicken boiled in hot water with no regard to the pain it suffers or its fate? Does he realize that the chicken and beef he eats were animals that probably walked around in some farm only a few days ago? Or does he feel that an animal life is less valuable than a human life? Who is he to tell?

Considering these facts, what right does President Bush had to impose this rule over the American public? But then Bush believes otherwise. He knows that using stem cells for research is like killing a cell which has the ability to grow into a whole new individual if given a chance. Maybe even some of you readers support these views. And hence the debate will remain unresolved. Simply because the morals that Mr. Bush follows will not be followed by all. The same argument can be extended to the idea of thieving. Take a pickpocket. He does what he has to do to put food in his stomach. By punishing him, are we not denying him a right to existence? Unbelievably stupid example, you may think. But is it? Maybe we are so much conditioned by the kind of society we live in that any mention of thieving can be thought of as ‘bad’. Can we live in a type of society in which what a thief steals using his talents, he keeps for himself? Sort of survival of the fittest(even in day to day life) kind of society? The animal world sees it all the time. You must have seen the routine in the nature channels a lot of times: a leopard captures a deer for lunch. Suddenly a pack of hyenas comes, chases off leopard, enjoys food, leaves. Then again, you might say, will we live in savage and uncivilized societies? If so, we be different from the animals in any way? I ask you back, even now how different from animals really are we? At least animals don’t make enough weapons that can destroy their planet many times over.

No I am not saying that we should drop everything we have and run into the forests (what remain of them) and start our animal like existence. I am just wondering the direction in which the concepts of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ have gone, where our morals have taken us and is there any hope for freedom from these morals?

At this point I am reminded of something that Napoleon said, that history is written by the winning side. At least I think it was he who said those words or something like them. Ever thought about what we would study in our history textbooks if Germany had won WW II?

TALK and See

Hey…

Went to the doc yesterday…got the usual medicines…anyway, feel much better today. But still I bunked today’s classes.

Haathi came with me…talked. Not talked, TALKED….long time since I TALKED with someone.

Today, Haathi introduced this female to me, Ishaani I believe is her name. Dunno why, but I am always bad with names. I remember all of the useless crap that will make no difference to my life but forget names which may actually matter. Anyway, the reason I mentioned this is because, apart from Soniya, she is the only female I have met in this college who actually reads books and can talk about them. By books, I mean real books. Not Sidney Sheldon type. Good to know that there are girls in my college  with some brains….relax…just kidding. I am not a chauvinist.

Finally, I finished the movie, “Roman Holiday”  today. I say half of it at home with Appa and Amma, a little more of it yesterday and finished it not half an hour ago. Brilliant movie. To think that they could take a movie like that in 1953 really tops it. The romance is very tender and watchable. And more importantly, somehow, Audrey Hepburn totally fits her role. Her smile and her looks….phew!!

It’s beautiful outside right now, just like if it has just ceased raining. So let me ruin the moment by surfing the net instead of enjoying nature.

Confused…

So I am back at my college, registration for the 7th semester is complete, classes have started and I am sick.
Some bloody fever has been running around for a couple of days.

Life is so confusing especially when u cant make a decision….
Life now, I am 90% sure that I want to write GRE and go outside this country for my higher studies but then sometimes I think, 'What if I get a job in TCS to Wipro?' Should I refuse the job? Should I sit for the job at all? I think I will sit. I want to see what the whole campus placement thing is about first hand. If I get the job, will I have enough will power to refuse it?
Hope that I have.

The Campus is still under the Counter Strike craze. There is not a singe night u can go to sleep without hearing "Fire in the Hole" or "Need Backup" or some guy voicing out his opinion of his teammates using some choicy expletives and the inevitable shooting, grenades exploding blah blah….Apparently, some guy shouted "Diffuse the Bomb" when the alarm woke him up one morning, thinking that the alarm was the countdown of a bomb.

Enough of CS. Bye for now. Curse the bloody cold+fever. I feel like half the man I was 2 days ago.

Bonds

Life is all bondage. In fact a life of bondage is all that we people know. Most can’t even recognize freedom when it knock on the door or even tries to break in.

By bondage, I don’t mean being put in a dark room in chains with no contact with the outer world. This bondage that I am trying to explain to you deals with other people. This is a bondage not in chains, but in relationships. And it is stronger than any chain. Relationships be it family or friendly, tie us all down, even without us knowing it.

We are born into chains. As an infant, it is a state of ignorance. And as you all know, ignorance is bliss. Hence we see that all infants are smiling most of the time.

Then slowly we grow up. Reach the first steps of adolescence, the time when a person is made from a kid. This is the time when the basics of personality are etched into the kid. This is the time when the kid tries to assert his place in the family and among his friends, and more likely as not, fails. But the spark has come. As he grows into his teens, he sees the world from his own eyes for the first time. He sees the unfiltered world, uncensored. Finally, he can start to make his own opinion on the world, on people. But then the kind of society we live in, ‘kids’ are not allowed to take a decision for their own till after they are married off to a person of their parents choice. The rebellious teens are when you actually start to question. You question everything, or at least try to. Their personality gets cemented in these years. And inevitably, these bonds play a huge part in that cementing. What you can make of your personality after those years is nothing but a smoothening up. You can smoothen the surfaces, you can polish the sides, and maybe even decorate it. But you cannot turn it inside out. In these years, you even try to get rid of the bonds. At least, most kids even try to become a little independent.

Then you marry. And all hell breaks loose. You jump from the elephants back to beneath its feet, and on the way down, you also give it a couple of pinches. Just when you were at a position from where you could actually control the way the bonds controlled you, you jump into a position in which you are not only bonded ever more tightly, you also invite more people to come and bond to you. Glutton for punishment.

These bonds are not evil. Far from it actually. But then, bonds always slow you down. They slow you down not on the road to success but on the path of freedom. Actually, they don’t slow you. They STOP you. You get so deeply entangled in the web that freedom ceases to exist even in your thoughts. Here, people find a sort of metastable state. They are not trying to run to freedom anymore. They have carved a niche for themselves wherein they find comfort within the bonds. They are happy where they are and enjoy their relations with the family and friends circle.

These are just the musings of a frustrated individual. All of these views are my own are have been obtained by careful study of lives – mine and others’. Inspiration for this article? I have a mom who calls me every day to ask if I drank enough water for the day. What better example of bondage?

Me in a plane

This was originally written on the 14th of June…some rambling thoughts when i was traveling in a plane

*****

This is an account of my recent experience in an aero plane, written inside one. Strange how nobody uses the word ‘aero plane’ now. It is just plane now.

It is maybe a common thing to many of you, nothing worth writing about. But then, to me, a ‘veteran’ of 3 flights including this one (the first one was when I was 4 years old…am not sure if I should count it), this IS a BIG DEAL.

Booked the tickets from over the net, Air Deccan, ***** to *****. ( I am very touchy about privacy). Was asked to bring some identification over while boarding. Wonder of wonders, the only use of that was when I went to the initial security check outside the airport. Flight was supposed to be at 3:50. Kept getting delayed a lot and on the end it left at something like 6:25. Typical Air Deccan, some might say. And to think that I read in the In Flight magazine that Air Deccan Flights were on time plus or minus 1 hour, 99% of all the time!!! And my first flight in Deccan is late by 2 and a half hrs…not a great first impression.

Now the testosterone fuelled part of my brain expected hot chicks as air hostesses wearing miniskirts, revealing some great legs and cleavage. As usual, what you hope is never what you get. Instead what I got is air hostesses wearing something, the closest comparison in my mind at that time was a full body covering suit. I should be thankful. At least, they are not covering their faces!!! Of course the ’sense’ part of my brain expected nothing of this sort.

Bloody shaky plane. Airbus A 320 says the safety manual. I say this is something like the local buses we have, all rickety and shaky.

Hey actually, not all air hostesses are that bad. I see one now that is pretty passable. By BIT standards she is a goddess though. Now that isn’t a big deal is it? By BIT standards, any female on 2 legs who is a non BITian is a HOT CHICK. Pardon me girls…but the sexist inside me needs to come out now and then…

Actually, there are 2 passable females in this flight….

Shit, we are descending and my ears are paining like nuts. I can’t even hear my own iPod.WTF?

Am sitting by the wing. Which is good since I like sitting near the wing.

The food cart just went by and nope, I am not buying anything. Any place that sells coffee worth 20 bucks is not worth it. Not that I am a scrooge kind of person. But there is this coffee machine in some corporate offices and other places . Coffee Day machines I think. Anyway they have this coffeemaker that powders coffee beans, mixes boiled milk and gives out the pdt at 6 bucks per. Anyone who has had that strong brilliant coffee will think the other idiots selling coffee at anything more than 6 bucks per as greedy bastards. But then maybe it is my small town brain thinking this way. From what I have seen, in metro cities and all, 20 bucks per coffee isn’t a big deal at all…

Still going down…dunno y, we are supposed to reach there by 8 pm and it is just 7 pm now.

I am hungry and am postponing helping myself coz I know that I will be served a sumptuous and brilliant meal by my dear bro and Mrs. Bro on arrival. But the everything said, watching other people stuff food down their throats gives even the most full person an appetite. But the the fact that bread sandwich is the only sold stuff available removes and urge to buy it. After all, have had enough and more bread in the mess at the hostels.

The last call for bidding has come. Idea is good but Shit, the stuff they give is bullshit. Whoever would want to buy jewellery in a plane? Other than bloody stupid women of course…

Shit that airhostess is really cute man…but a little too much makeup.

Can see a golden line thru the window. Seems to be all that is left of the sun for this day. Whoa…it is brilliant…streaks of golden yellow in the horizon, intermixed with monsoon clouds, and I can make out a sun just below the clouds in the horizon, a ring of molten ….molten whatever that looks brilliant golden yellow. UNBELIEVABLE…never thought that the sun would be so beautiful even when it is barely visible. Some things have to be seen to be appreciated. If I had a camera, I would have taken a photo, but then I don’t have, so forget it.

The shaking has stopped. Probably was the plane flying thru some clouds.

Seems like we have overtaken the clouds..can’t see any in front for some distance.

They are announcing decent. C ya later!!!