ShamiKa.in

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is the largest of India's Central Armed Police Forces. The CRPF's primary role lies in assisting the State/Union Territories in police operations to maintain law and order and counter insurgency. With 239 battalions and various other establishments, the CRPF is considered India's largest paramilitary force and has a sanctioned strength of 313,678 personnel.  Yesterday, at 3:15pm, a Scorpio driven by a Jaish suicide bomber who was a local youth carrying a huge amount of explosives, deliberately crash banged into 1 of the 78 trucks which formed part of the convoy carrying approximately 2500 CRPF personnel who were returning from their vacation and proceeding to resume work in Awantipora, 30kms from Srinagar. 

I am a winter baby. And I proved it yet again! Day before yesterday, I went on an overnight trip to Saphale (about one and a half hour away from Thane, ahead of Vasai) for a star gazing session which lasted through the whole night. This was the second year that I went through the college. Caption: That's all of us thanking our "stars" that we made it alive after spending the entire night in an open field, under a star filled sky, without turning into ice princesses. P.S - Temperatures during that night were anywhere between 8-14 degrees celcius. Also, the shiny dot there on top of us is Venus (which we got to see through a telescope) Last year when I went, everyone started shivering at around 4:30am. But this time, that very same cold got to us at 10:30 in the night itself. We made sure that everyone (even the juniors, because college students somehow tend to have a lot of garam jawaan khoon , and say "didi, humko thandi nhi lagti" but invariably en...

So here's what you should make sure of before you go there: 1. Take food to eat (but not in excess) because there are no restaurants in the village and you're bound to feel hungry during the night. 2. Take a lot of blankets and warm clothing. And I mean a lot. Why? Because this is no where near  "Mumbai or Dilli ki thandi".  You're going to be out, on an open land (which gets really wet by morning thanks to the dew which forms) with fields all around you, under the stars. So it's really cold. I've only been there in February, so I can't say anything about the weather conditions of the other months. 3. Make sure you carry a plastic to put on the ground(even sleeping bags are useless) and don't get your feet wet (because you may need to cross through water by walking on stepping stones. Cold feet feel horrible). Windcheaters are the next best option.