Prasanta Behera Blog

Lunch bag (Poem) X-men, Superman, Avengers Barbie, wonder-women, Iron-men Capt. America, Lilo and Elastigirl. Rows and rows of kids with lunch bags walking, giggling and laughing some in excitement with new friends some not sure why summer came to an end. I watched from my car at the stop kids are walking one by one non-stop some students are carrying the lunch bag for some, the grand-parents are holding like a mighty weapon along with the back-pack for some parents, a tussle  brewing to hand that lunch bag the kid is hesitating the face of the kid tells the story an ugly lunch bag, even I would not like to carry. It was not long ago, I was packing lunch Bagel bites, PBJ, apple, go-gurt and imaginations First few years, the  lunch bag had characters after that , they said, “ Dad, I have grown up. I am not a kid anymore. You need to up your creative game some more." So, I packed the  lunch in a brown  paper bag so that they can keep ins...

Hike to Mt Whitney (Oct 3 - Oct 6, 2018) Mt Whitney is the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States (14,500 feet). Alaska has taller mountains.  As part of my journey, I decided to do the hike (at least try). Before this, the highest mountain I had hiked was Glacier point (Yosemite National Park). I did it in my late 20's and it is only 7,200 feet high. Now I am in my 50's and so the challenge is quite on a different scale.  Mt. Whitney trail is 22 miles but steep gradient and less of oxygen and the times it takes makes it extremely challenging. It takes anywhere from 16-24 hrs for the hike. Preparation :  I joined a small hiking group (all newbies) and started hiking in Bay Area (San Jose, CA). I did few 20+ miles hike in 8-9 hrs climbing only 2,800 ft.  I had prepared as best as I can but looking back,  I did not prepared very well on two areas; a) Hiking with good enough back pack weight.  I  had only hiked around with 10 lbs at the mo...