c u on top - satyabrata dam

... continued from the previous post.... 6. Húsavík, Iceland: A nation with the word ‘ice’ embedded in its name has to be among my top favourites just for that reason alone, and Iceland has countless other reasons as well. The proverbial land of ‘fire and ice’, blue lagoon, hot water springs, active volcanoes, some of the world’s largest ice caps, rare flora and fauna, clean crisp air, ice covered mountains, lakes, mysterious coves and bays, and some of the world’s friendliest people; I can go on and on about Iceland but I must pause for the sake of this post. Iceland is among my most repeated European destinations and by now I have almost seen the entire country in a manner that most tourists simply can’t, all thanks to my numerous friends there who have gone out of their ways to take me around and to make me feel completely at home. In my next trip there I plan to cycle around the entire country following the national highway ring road. In my estimate I would take around 40 days t...

My friend Dagfinnur called me, ‘Hey, Satya, you will be meeting the President tomorrow morning at 11.30 am. I will pick you up at 11.’ ‘President’, I said, ‘the Alpine Club President?’ ‘No, Satya, the President of the country.’ ‘How much time do I have with him?’ I asked the most stupid question possible at the moment. Similar to asking an organizer who had invited me for a talk to know how much time I had on the dais. ‘Twenty minutes, may be, tops thirty, if you are lucky. He is an extremely busy man.’ Dagfinnur cut the line. I ended up spending almost an hour with Mr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson while pocketing (come on, what do you think about me!), eating a plate of really nice sandwich and biscuits washed with the aroma of the finest Oolong (Upper Fagu, if I am not mistaken) tea. This is the story. It was one of my very rare speechless moments. I took nearly a minute to recover my vocal and mental chords. Well, Satya, I said to no one in particular, you are moving in to high places fin...