The Peregrination

A decade of Financial Independence

2011-10-03T23:12:00.000+05:30

On 1st of October, a decade ago I started my career as a fresh engineer at Honeywell. Today I sit back and think of those days... It was freedom, financial independence.

It has been a decade. My company has given a lot of things to me. I should be thankful to my colleagues who helped me, who trusted me. My friend and colleague Satya tells me now I belong to HRC. (RC stands for relic community!!).

I have been through lot of things these past 10 years, some I regret I should have not done, and some I am proud of.
I fulfilled my responsibility as a brother, I myself got more responsible. Now only thing pending is to build a home.

Hope the coming years will be even better than the years that have gone by. I think during this month, most of my engineering friends would be completing their decade of feat as well, all the best guys!!

After a very long time

2011-09-22T21:54:00.000+05:30

I logged into Facebook, g+ after a long time. Updated myself with whats all my friends are up to. Then I remembered that I have not blogged for a very long time. Neither have I read blogs of my friends. I deeply regret for this.
I have been quite busy and many things have happened in life. I have changed a lot, beyond even I had thought of. I just hope everything will come around and I become what I used to be. I just hope for it.

The 'SEA" that I saw...

2011-03-24T17:31:00.002+05:30

This happened several months ago, but for some reason I could not write it.

I had been to Manipal for recruiting interns. When we were finished, we decided to visit the beach. At the beach, I stood there, staring at the sea, wondering its vastness and calm. And suddenly, I was filled with some kind of sadness. Oh where is that river?

There is this song written by GS Shivarudrappa in Kannada, "kaaNada kaDalige hambaliside mana"(mind is longing for the unseen sea). In the song a river has been personified and through the adroit mincing of words the poet has ingeniously expressed river's feelings. The gushing river imagines the 'sea', its final destination. It puts together all information it has heard about 'the sea', in this captivating composition.

The river says, "my mind is longing for the unseen sea, will I ever be able to see it, will I ever be able to merge into its color", the river hears the whispering roar of waves, river wonders how could the sea be so calm when thousands of rivers merge into it.

The last two lines of the song leave me awestruck. The line goes like "jaTila kaananada, kuTila paThagaLali hariva toreyu naanu...". It means, 'I am the stream that flows through crooked paths in the arduous forests, will I be able to dissolve into the blueness of the sea someday?' The rhyming words chosen by the poet and the cadent voice of Ashwath, resonates with my emotions and imagination. I imagine the world in which 'I' am the river and I am chasing my dreams.

Looking at sea, I wondered what happened to that river? Where did it go? Oh.. it has lost its identity in the vastness of sea. Does the river exist anymore? Where am I? Have I lost myself and my identity in chasing one of my dreams? What am I going to become? How do I redeem myself from this world and go back to my dream world? Lots of thoughts whooshed through my mind.

I was awakened from my dream by the rain which forced me to run for cover. Torrential rain lasted for almost an hour and obscured the visibility completely. The sea was no more visible. Oh.. this is the redemption of the river. Yes, the rain gods are showering in the mountains on which the river is reborn. I felt happy about it. The river is not lost anymore. In the almighty's scheme of things, some things are elusive.

I felt light. I did not feel like I was lost. I learnt a lesson here. I just need to have sound goals and dreams and chase them with conscious effort. Life is never boring again...

ನಾ ಕಂಡ ಪಂಚರಂಗಿ

2010-10-04T20:28:00.000+05:30

ಕಳೆದ ವಾರ ಕೊನೆಗೂ ಪಂಚರಂಗಿಯ ರಂಗನ್ನು ಕಾಣುವ ಕನಸು ನನಸಾಯಿತು. ನನಗನ್ನಿಸಿದ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಚಿತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ರಂಗಿನ ಕೊರತೆ ಎದ್ದು ಕಾಣುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕರು ಬಹಳ ಕಡೆ ಬೂದಿ(gray color) ಬಣ್ಣವನ್ನು ಹಾಗೆ ಉಳಿಸಿ ಬಿಟ್ಟಂತೆ ಅನ್ನಿಸಿತು. ಹಾಡುಗಳು ಸಹ ಮತ್ತೆ ಗುನುಗುವಂತೇನೂ ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ, ಒಂದನ್ನು ಹೊರತು ಪಡಿಸಿ. ಆದರು FM Radio ದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಸಾರವಾಗುವ ಹಾಡಿಗೂ, ಮೂಲತಹ ಚಿತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಹಾಡಿಗೂ ಬಹಳ ವ್ಯತ್ಯಾಸ ಇದೆ. I like the one broadcasted on FM Radio.

ಅದು ಹೇಗೇ ಇರಲಿ ಚಿತ್ರದ ಸಂದೇಶ ನನಗೆ ಇಷ್ಟವಾಯಿತು. ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕರು ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಎರಡು ಆಯಾಮಗಳನ್ನು ಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಒಂದು ಕಡೆ ಪೋಷಕರ "herd following" ದೃಷ್ಟಿಕೋನ, ಮಗ ವಿದೇಶಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋದರೇನೇ ಉದ್ದಾರ ಆದಂತೆ, ಹರಕು-ಮುರುಕು ಅಂಗ್ಲ ಭಾಷೆ ಮಾತಾಡಿದರೇನೆ ಸಮಾಜದಲ್ಲಿ ಗೌರವ ಎಂದು ಭಾವಿಸುವ ಪೋಷಕರು. ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಕಡೆ ನಾಯಕನ ಅಸಡ್ಡೆತನ, ಜೀವನ ಬರಿ ನಶ್ವರ ಎಂದು, ಕಂಡದ್ದೆಲ್ಲವನ್ನು ತೆಗಳುವ ನಿರ್ಲಿಪ್ತ ಮನೋಭಾವ. ಇದೆಲ್ಲದರ ನಡುವೆಯೇ ಸುಂದರವಾದ ಜೀವನ ಒಂದು ಇದೆ ಎಂದು ತೋರಿಸಲು ಹೊರಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಅದೇನೇ ಆಗಲಿ ಚಿತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಪರಿಚಯಿಸಿರುವ ಒಂದು ರೀತಿಯ ಪ್ರಾಸಬದ್ದ ಸಂಭಾಷಣೆಯನ್ನು ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲ ಹೇಳಿ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಬೈಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಖುಷಿ ಪಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡೆ. ಈಗ ನಿಮಗೂ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ತಲೆ ತಿನ್ನುತ್ತೇನೆ, ತಾಳ್ಮೆ ಇದ್ದಾರೆ ಓದಿಕೊಳ್ಳಿ...

ನಾವುಗಳು - ನಮ್ಮನ್ನು ಕಾಡಿಸುವ bugಗು ಗಳು

ದಿನಕ್ಕೊಂದು ಹುಟ್ಟಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ platformಗಳು,

ಅವುಗಳೆಲ್ಲದರ ಮೇಲೆ application ಬರೆಯುವ ನಾವುಗಳು,

Windows, Mac, Linux Operating systemಗಳು,

ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗೆ ಬಂದ android, iOS ಗಳು,

mobile phoneಗಳು, tablet PCಗಳು,

iPad, Galaxyಗಳು,

officeನ ಹೊರಗೆ ರಸ್ತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೀ ಹಳ್ಳಗಳು,

ಅವುಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಓಡುವ ನಮ್ಮ ಮೋಟಾರು ವಾಹನಗಳು,

ಕೈಗೆಟುಕದ ಬೆಲೆಗಳು,

ಮಿತಿ ಇಲ್ಲದ ನಮ್ಮ ಹವ್ಯಾಸಗಳು,

ಲೆಕ್ಕವಿರದ TV channelಗಳು,

ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಬರುವ ಧಾರಾವಾಹಿಗಳು,

ಇವನ್ನು ನೋಡದೆ ಇರಲಾಗದ ಅಜ್ಜಿ-ತಾತ ಗಳು,

ಇವೆಲ್ಲದರ ಮದ್ಯೆ ಇರುವ ನಾವುಗಳು ನಮ್ಮ ಕನಸುಗಳು!!!

Life is colorful, see it through a kaleidoscope to make it more eventful.

de ja vu - reliving those days!!

2010-07-20T23:08:00.000+05:30

Those days are back!! Days, where the life was so busy coding, debugging and adding new features to the software, I almost forget coffee, lunch and even the sense of time. Even in my dreams I see code, I think of solution and sometimes I get idea to fix some bug while sleeping.

A couple of years back I had worked in similar project. My recent project is giving me the opportunity to re-live those days. I forget all the daily chores of life. Not feeling happy on Friday, as I have to wait for 2 more days to jump into coding.

When I get exhausted, I just take a cup of coffee and stand on the terrace watching the bustling Bannerghatta road traffic, I think I am much better than those restless people who drive insanely to reach their targets a few seconds earlier. I listen to soothing music on radio and I feel like flying. I feel unbounded, free and I remember the movie Forrest Gump that I watched last week. I am enjoying every moment of it.

A refreshing day!!

2010-07-15T22:54:00.000+05:30

Today, I have an uncanny urge to write. I am ashamed to see that my last post was 5 months ago. Lots of things have remained half-composed in scattered text files. I hope they will all find a way to my blog sometime sooner..

It has been a good day today. Lot of exciting stuff happening at office. Well, I have got an opportunity to develop application on iPhone/iPad platform. It came as a surprise offer after abruptly closing down my previous project.

Its been about 3 weeks since we(Paraddi my colleague and I) have been learning apple platform, and today our first application came up on simulator, which I feel is quite a feat. I am very happy about it. I am kind of liking Apple and Mac!!

It is a pretty challenging project. My manager bought 2 Mac Mini's and 5 books and gave them to us. He told its all yours, give me first demo on Aug 16th. Wow, man what a freedom. It is one of a kind of an opportunity to nerds like us. Even in my dreams sometimes I will be designing some framework for my application. It has been many years since I worked in this way. Wow, I am liking it.

And I am liking the fact that I am writing my blog too!!

Commotions

2010-02-18T08:44:00.001+05:30

Hmm... Once again a long hiatus. I am missing my blog so much. Finally managed to steal some time from busy life to give due justice my longtime companion...

While there are plenty of things about my life to write here, right now lot of things are going on inside my mind, and sometimes I haven't been able to comprehend certain things. I have been wondering what is happening to me, why are these things happening to me.
After a long time I thought of checking my horoscope on tarot.com, which had been my favorite time pass, and most of the times, funny thing is the horoscope matches!!! This is what was there for me,
"It may seem as if you haven't been like your old self in years with dreamy Neptune in your sign for the last decade. Now it's time to look back and think about all the changes you've been through, especially the ones that elude logical understanding. You are in a gradual transition phase, and your realizations today could be instrumental in making the choices that will redefine your life in years to come. Be patient; this kind of transformation takes time."

OK. I have patience in abundance, I am waiting for the transformation!!

Deepavali Habba

2009-11-24T22:01:00.007+05:30

It looks like I have a 'hiatus syndrome'. I make so many resolutions and make a good start, but before I realize, one day I procrastinate, and that's it. I just decide to postpone it to tomorrow and that tomorrow never comes. But today, I just decided I would simply do, what I can do. Forget about all that I failed to accomplish.

Coming to the title of post, like every year, Deepavali is festival lights. Fortunately, I was in India this year, thanks to recession. I was in dilemma whether to buy crackers. I have to care for the environment I live, but how could I convince these complex issues to cousins, as big brother, they expect me to buy them crackers. When I was pondering over my dilemma, I heard about the life of people in Sivakasi, the place where all the crackers are supposedly made. They have only two profession, manufacturing crackers and printing. I felt pity for them.

So if I buy crackers, in some tiny scale, I would be helping those guys. So I decided to buy crackers that do not make huge noise. In that way, I would not be contributing to the sound pollution.

So the whole festival went without any hitches. Everyone enjoyed fireworks. Nobody was hurt(I almost lost an ear 2 years ago!!). So here are some snaps of the fireworks.

Coincidence!!

2009-10-22T23:49:00.002+05:30

Yesterday while having dinner, I watched ending part of this movie Hitch. It was a good romantic comedy, Will Smith delivering some interesting dialogs.

A dialog goes like this "Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away."

It sounded cool, though the drinking part may not be applicable for teetotalers.

Today, I happen to watch this movie Partner, immediately I thought it looked familiar. Bingo, it is remake of Hitch, that I watched just a day before. But Hollywood version had a purpose which was lacking in Bollywood counterpart. I think David Dhavan got confused between comedy and romance, and neither of them are at right place.

Anyway, I am not a film critic, but what a coincidence. Two days same movie ending in two languages!!!

Joy of doing things!!!

2009-10-22T23:28:00.003+05:30

Hello friends, thanks for your suggestions to my previous post on my stoicism. I think I have found a solution for it. Or at least I am feeling better now.

What I found is, the subtle difference between doing things right away and procrastinating will have a big impact on the end result. Often times, I procrastinate many things thinking I could do them any time. In fact, I would never do them at all. As such "to do" things keep adding into the queue, many things slip away and remain undone.

By the time I realize, lot of things would have changed. I feel guilty for my act and start worrying about it, and finally end up not doing anything at all.

So what I have decided is, if I don't do it now, I am not going to do it at all. It is either do it or forget it. There is no scope for repenting. Just burn the bridges and move on...

My experiments with stoicism

2009-09-28T23:38:00.002+05:30

Of late, I have noticed a difference in me. I have become stoic. No emotions, nothing makes me happy, sad... no feelings at all. There used to be a time when I used to enjoy every small thing I did. Be it pressing my clothes, running on treadmill, washing car, fixing a bug, playing TT, getting up early, I used to enjoy every bit of it. The joy after so much of physical effort was really rewarding.

But, what has happened to me now. I don't feel anything, but still I do all the things. Yesterday, I washed the car under scorching sun but at the end, I didn't feel the joy that I used to. Everything has become a routine job. At the same time, I don't neglect anything.

I did a lot of experimenting on myself. I watched stupid movies like 'mera pehla pehla pyar' in which the word 'logic' has no meaning at all. 'Escape to Africa' in HD failed to please me. Very good movie like 'Moggina Manasu' became a timepass. Trekking in the Sharavathi valley last week also failed to revive me.

I didn't feel bad when I was asked to work on weekend and mandatory holidays. In fact I am online now to fix some issues and I don't want to crib about it. I have not been able to meet my buddy Sridhar for 3 days, but still I am not feeling bad about it...

Hmm... Something has really gone wrong with me. I am planning to watch a horror movie alone to see if I get scared. I think Exorcist may be a good option. I have to find my way back to normalcy, I know I won't let myself be consumed by stoicism, but this has seriously reached its high.

Life with Ritzy-Ritz

2009-09-05T23:00:00.002+05:30

Hmm.... I was always skeptical about my 4 wheeler driving, as I myself am defensive when driving 2 wheeler. But after all, it turned out to be not so difficult as I had originally thought. Now after having driven 1500km in 2 months, I am no longer scared to go out at any time. Earlier I used to leave very early or too late to avoid traffic. I was always worried about shifting gears. But after some time it becomes a kind of instinct. Just like when driving two wheeler, there is an instinctive co-ordination of hand and leg, only difference is roles are reversed for a four wheeler!!!

As Sridhar had told, car is a very special friend in life. It really changes the life.

First service is over a month ago and I was happy to see that the bill was Rs 0. I am getting an average mileage of 15+ in a mix of city and highway driving mostly without AC. I think it is good for a petrol car, and I am enjoying the driving.

The journey so far...

2009-09-05T22:36:00.005+05:30

Hmm... today I found myself in front of my computer after a long time. Its been quite a long since I did this, and I am feeling de ja vu.

Life has become so overwhelmed with lot of things going on at work, but somehow I have managed to be successful at work. But I have lost rythm in life. I no longer read news paper, not so regular to gym, no photography, no treks, no reading, no blogging and my keyboard is lying there waiting for somebody to play.

After buying car, I washed it everyday for a week. Then it became once in a week or on the day when I am taking it out. Today, I just dusted it!!!

Then, there is this recession, 5 days of confirmed furlough in December. No idea when things start moving up.....

Now I am on a retrospection to find out why have I become like this. I hope to find root cause soon and I take the corrective action to bring life back on tracks.

Marriage - an event of epic proportions

2009-07-28T23:31:00.005+05:30

A scientist from ISRO had once said in a lecture that, a man must do 3 deeds in order to redeem himself as a human being. One of them is "performing a marriage" and I have forgotten other two :-) I guess the "constructing a home" must be the other deed.

I can proudly brag that I have fulfilled one of the deeds, at a fairly young age ;-). Am I young? well, I am listening to "18 till I die" by Bryan Adams, as I type these lines!!

OK, straight to the fact, I am talking about my sister's marriage. Though it is well over 3 months ago, I had been thinking of writing my experiences somehow today I felt, if I don't write today I might never write. So before memories fade, I want to put them in words. I would be utter selfish if I don't thank and acknowledge all my aunts and uncles for supporting me in fulfilling this great responsibility.

April 14th, the Sunday was the auspicious day .

These are my experiences and feelings about conducting a marriage. It gave me a lot of strength to believe in myself that I can do bigger things. I cherish every moment of it. It was an amazing experience, and possibly only solace for not having an elder sibling(I always craved that I needed an elder sibling!!). Here I go...

I never considered myself as responsible and important before my sister's marriage discussions started. When I confronted the question of "giving and taking" (as it is commonly known as "ಕೊಡುವುದು - ಬಿಡುವುದು") I felt a sharp shiver down the spine. I was speechless because I wasn't prepared for such question.

As month of April approached, things gained a fulminant momentum. I got a very sensitive project at office, for which I had to reschedule my vacation plans. I had to slog day and night in office and there were endless things to be done at home. For some strange reason, I was never tensed. My mother was opposite, she appeared to have taken my part of tension also.

I had no clue of what all to do and how to do. I must say that things just fell into place. Everything has become a package system. It all depends on how much money one is willing to shell out. Flower decoration, nadaswara, marriage hall decoration and such things just happen based on the package one opts for. So I did not have to worry about these things. The other important item is booking a good cook. I met 3~4 cooks and settled to one after getting feedbacks.

Biggest work was the distribution of wedding cards. Luckily my uncle had bough a car and learnt driving too!! It was like "My Autograph" feeling for me as I visited all relative's homes, with whom I had not even spoken for many years. It is very emotinal bit for me, as most of them recognized me. We had to be very careful not to miss anyone. As it leads to some misunderstandings. I had to go to Attibele on a weekday because we had missed inviting few people there. The routine was slogging in office on weekdays and distributing wedding invites on weekends. There was no scope was "rest".

Those were crazy days, and I still repent for my foolishness of forgetting inviting my friends. I always wanted to invite all personally so did not even e-mail anybody. I still managed to invite few of my colleagues on a raining Friday evening.

So far things were happening at a manageable pace and it was manageable to catch some Z's.

Friday went so fast, I wasn't home during "Devata karya". My mama and I went to the marriage hall at 1AM in the night with Chiroti Rava that was missed out from groceries. We had dinner at 2 AM there, that we had packed from home. There was no time to sleep before saturday. Saturday after packing and sending all guests to the hall, I found myself and two cousin sisters left. So I took them on my bike. The whole events so far appeared so casual that things were just happening, there was just enough time to act. When I reached the hall, it was full of activity.

I was bombarded with so many things by so many people, I am just amazed at my patience. It was like I was expected to know everything and it was my big mistake that something was missing. For example, Ice for evening juice!! How on earth will I know, if the cook himself forgets it. I peacefully managed to find somebody to get the things or went myself to get some things. During all these chaos I just notice that the reception had already started, the bride and groom were already standing at the podium and there were already guests wishing the couple. I was still wearing old T shirt and tracks, soaked in filthy sweat. I was so overwhelmed by the things happening at kitchen, I almost forgot it was my sister's wedding. I rushed to make myself presentable with a decent attire. By that time the hall was full with guests. Again I was caught in the job of accompanying few guests for the photograph and attending the dining hall to see everything was going fine. In spite of all my efforts I found that some batch of people did not receive "tamboola" after dinner. For that also, some people accused me as if I did it knowingly.

Finally the penultimate day was complete with everything going well. I got appreciations for the food, for which I should thank the cook for not spoiling anything. There were many other "shasthra"s that night, we were all watching and cracking some jokes and that was the only time for relaxing. My cousin tempted me with a few hours of kipping down and we managed to lie down on the floor(literally, we slept on floor).

I must have slept for an hour or so, my aunt woke me up shouting that there was no water in the bath room. I wondered what I could do to get water at 4 AM in the morning. I found my mother furious that we forgot the "peTa" for the groom. What on earth could I do now. One of my uncle took responsibility of getting the "peTa" before it was needed and that cooled down my mother. Then an uncle and I went to the terrace to see what was the problem with water. We found that the tanks were indeed empty and boiler was out of firewood. We got the maintenance person to switch on borewell and I started filling boiler with firewood and lighted it. Wow... what all I was doing!!! At least all the people who took hot water bath on that day, should thank me. I deserve that ;-).

Same rushing events made me running around from kitchen to marriage hall to temple. When I just managed to have breakfast, I got a call on my mobile that "taaLi" was being tied and where was I. I rushed immediately, after all I was doing all the things for that "holy" ceremony and I couldn't miss that. By the tme I reached the mantap, my sister was already there. I had imagined myself bringing her from room to the mantap, but everything was over here. Before I could get hold of things, "taaLi" was tied. And it was over, the biggest event of my life was over, and it took few moments for me to realize that.

Few hours later the hall was empty. My sister was ready on her journey to her new home and beginning of new life. I was still lagging behind to comprehend the events. I was preoccupied with remaining things like how to get all my relatives and other stuff to my home, all the payments I had to make and keeping accounts of everything. At the gate I saw everyone in tears, to send off my sister to her new home. Somehow, there was no drop of tear in my eyes. I have no idea, if I was indifferent or I had already prepared for this time or I was overwhelmed by the gravity of events.

Somehow I managed to send everyone and eveything home. Finally only myself and my best buddy, my bike were there. I bid a goodbye to the marriage hall and was on my way to home. Somehow I felt very light as if I was flying. I felt a great sense of accomplishment.

One question I ask myself is, for every marriage that takes place, is there a person like me who faces all such things? Was it really needed or was I over indulging myself? I don't know. But if there is anything that I regret in the whole event, that is I was never part of the marriage. I felt like I was standing outside and making sure that things were happening. I mean I never felt that "I did" anything. There are many more events, incidents that kept me on my toes.

Anyway, I don't know if I fulfilled my duties as a good brother to a sister, but I am sure I scored full marks as a human being.

My New Companion - Ritzy Ritz

2009-07-05T23:44:00.004+05:30

Finally all planets aligned on Friday, 3rd July and I found myself in the driver seat of my Ritz, driving it out of Sagar Automobiles on Bannerghatta Road!!!

Yes!! I have found myself a companion!! Ritzy Ritz.

After a lot of study and comparisons, exploring the new world of 4 wheel automobiles... I finally zeroed in on the Maruti Suzuki Ritz, ZXi. Have a look at it, how ritzy it is, after a 1.5 hour back breaking washing!!

But rain gods made sure that my Ritzy stays out of 'dhrishty' by showering some drops of rain after I took this picture!! But I am not moved, I will wash it again tomorrow!!

Background: When I decided to upgrade myself with couple of extra wheels, I started exploring all new 4 wheeler automobile world. Its a world of its own. The decision making was very complex.
Petrol or Diesel? The price difference for a diesel engine, takes about 50000+ kms to break even. That is almost half the life of the engine, though the FIAT 1.3L internation engine of the year seem to defy the diesel engine philosophy. So after my own study and consulting friends, I decided to go for Petrol.

There is hardly any choice in this category. My preference was a hatchback, small car. Swift tops the list. I10, I20(though a bit expensive), Inidca Vista Saffire, and then newly announced Ritz. My mind was thinking of waiting till Jazz and Grande Punto too. But I knew they would be out of my budget.
Then Test drove Ritz and I20 and liked both. Vista was ruled because of Tata's poor after sales service(read in reviews). Swift was ruled out as it has become ubiquitous on roads and also average performance of petrol engine.
The K12 series 1.2l engine of Ritz seemed to be impressive(source www.team-bhp.com). Also the design, especially rear design is, I should say different!! And it is built on Swift platform, looks almost like Swift from front. I20 is on the expensive side, though I was impressed very much by the features it boasts.

So Ritzy and I were destined to be companions. I decided to opt of ZXi, fully loaded. It is packed with ABS with EBD, MP3 player with FM, stearing mounted audio controls, company fitted security system, alloy wheels with wider tyres(185/70) to name a few features.

First drive impression - Awesome. It is almost impossible to tell if the engine is on without looking at the RPM meter. So life is going to be more fun and exciting!!!

Lots of things....

2009-06-21T01:36:00.002+05:30

Wow... it is good to be back after a long break. I think I was hit by blogger's block. It is when one starts thinking "Why should I blog?".
I think I have not found the answer for that question, but definitely I did not find any reasons "Why shouldn't I?"
Ok, lots of things have happened in past 3 months.
1) Most important of all is my sister's marriage, was the biggest responsibility on my shoulders. A separate blog on the experience of "ಮದುವೆ ಮಾಡಿ ನೋಡು"(plights of performing marriage)
2) Got a project, a very hectic project with aggressive schedule.
3) Booked a car, yes I decided to upgrade myself with coupled of more wheels. More on this after I get it.

At this time in night I am wondering what all insignificant things alter the course of life. When you are 'home alone', these are the things that come to one's mind.
I can't believe I am typing this blog because of elections that were held on sometime in April!!! Here is how the logic works out. I should have been out in the western ghats, some where one could not even imagine. I had planned to go on trekking with my previous gang this weekend. But un-fortunately today was a working day in my office to compensate for the election day leave. What a pity!!!. Anyway, I am glad that I am posting after a long break.....

Ok... enough of non-sense. Got to get some sleep, tomorrow I am going to meet Sri after a long time... after that I have to go to aunt's place and so on...

Small Wonders - Living on edge...

2009-03-10T08:43:00.002+05:30

Sometimes I really enjoy when I finish things just in time. It is really not living on the edge of life, but still can be considered so, for small wonders it brings.

One such thing is my income tax returns. I finally filed it this week, March 31 being the last day for doing so. Also I am in need of some funds in the form of loan. My financial future would have been doomed this year, if I hadn't filed my tax returns now. I

Other funny things are, somedays I go to my office by inter-office shuttle. The shuttle leaves main campus at 10:05AM. It gives me immense pleasure and satisfaction when I catch it just in time. For this I won't leave from home until 9:55, negotiate insane traffic, park the bike in hurry and run. Many times I have just gotten into the bus when it is almost about to close the door. But the pleasure and some silly sense of accomplishment it gives, I can't put in words. Needless to say that,I have also managed to miss the shuttle couple of times too.

These are some small wonders that make the day interesting :)

Haage Summane - Time pass

2009-02-26T22:46:00.001+05:30

For a change, to avoid monotone, some days I travel to office by bus. Best part of the journey is when I am lucky, the red signal stops the bus at the very intersection. For 10 min or so, I get to see the marvelous aerobatics skills of Bramhini and Black Kites. Each Kite that rises from the sewage canal with its 'prized' catch has to face a swarm of more Kites which try to steal the prize and in the fight Kites exibit excellent flying skills. It's a treat to watch if one does not mind the stench!!

Today happens to be a day like that, though I did not get to see the 'Kite show'. While returning, bus was almost empty and I was in no mood to read. So I did something interesting, that I had been planning to do.

I had read this famous poem from Pablo Neruda. Lot of people had translated the English version to Kannada(including Dr Nissar Ahmad). I too tried my turn, not a bad thing to kill time in bus!! Here it goes....

'Love is short and oblivion is so long' - This line touched my heart.

ಈ ರಾತ್ರಿ ನಾ ಬರೆಯಬಲ್ಲೆ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ದುಃಖದ ಸಾಲುಗಳ

ಉದಾಹರಣೆಗೆ,
ಈ ರಾತ್ರಿ ಛಿದ್ರವಾಗಿದೆ, ನೀಲಿ
ನಕ್ಷತ್ರಗಳು ಚಡಪಡಿಸುತಿವೆ ದೂರದಲಿ.
ತಂಗಾಳಿ ಆಕಾಶವನ್ನು ಸುತ್ತುತಿದೆ
ವಿರಹಗೀತೆಯನು ಹಾಡುತಿದೆ.

ಈ ರಾತ್ರಿ ನಾ ಬರೆಯಬಲ್ಲೆ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ದುಃಖದ ಕವಿತೆಯ
ಅವಳನು ಪ್ರೇಮಿಸಿದೆ, ಕೆಲಕಾಲವಾದರೂ ಅವಳೆನ್ನ ಪ್ರೇಮಿಸಿದಳು

ಅವಳನು ಬಾಹುಬಂಧನದಲಿ ಬಳಸಿದ ರಾತ್ರಿಗಳೆಷ್ಟೋ
ಅನಂತ ಆಗಸದಡಿ ಅವಳನು ರಂಜಿಸಿದ ಚುಂಬನಗಳೆಷ್ಟೋ

ಅವಳೆನ್ನ ಪ್ರೇಮಿಸಿದಳು, ನಾನೂ ಸಹ ಮನಸಾರೆ ಪ್ರೀತಿಸಿದೆ
ದೀಪದಂತಿದ್ದ ಅವಳ ದಿಟ್ಟ ಕಂಗಳನ್ನು ಹೇಗೆ ಅನಾದರಿಸಲಿ

ಈ ರಾತ್ರಿ ನಾ ಬರೆಯಬಲ್ಲೆ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ದುಃಖದ ಕವಿತೆಯ
ಅವಳಿಲ್ಲದ ನೆನಪಿನಲಿ, ಅವಳನ್ನು ಕಳೆದುಕೊಂಡ ವೇತನೆಯಲಿ

ಈ ಗಾಢ ರಾತ್ರಿ, ಅವಳಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ಘೋರ
ಈ ಕವಿತೆಯು ಅಂತರಾತ್ಮವನು ತಟ್ಟುತಿದೆ,
ಹುಲ್ಲಿನ ಮೇಲಿನ ಇಬ್ಬನಿಯ ತೆರದಿ

ನನ್ನವಳನ್ನಾಗಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಸೋತಿರಲು
ಚುಕ್ಕಿ ಚಂದ್ರಮರ ರಾತ್ರಿಯಲಿ ಅವಳೆನ್ನ ಜೊತೆಯಲಿಲ್ಲ

ಇದೆ ಅಂತ್ಯವೇ, ದೂರದಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾರೋ ಹಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ
ಅವಳಿಲ್ಲದೆ ನನ್ನ ಅಂತರಾತ್ಮ ಚೈತನ್ಯ ಹೀನವಾಗಿದೆ

ಅವಳನ್ನು ಕರೆತರಲು ನನ್ನ ಕಣ್ಣುಗಳು ತಡವುತಿದೆ
ಹೃದಯವು ಚಡಪಡಿಸುತಿದೆ, ಅವಳೆನ್ನ ಬಳಿಯಿಲ್ಲದೆ

ಇದೇ ರಾತ್ರಿ, ಮರಗಳನು ಬೆಳಗಿಸುವ ರಾತ್ರಿ
ನಾವು, ನಾವಿದ್ದರೂ, ನಾವಾಗಿ ಉಳಿದಿಲ್ಲ

ನಾನಿನ್ನು ಅವಳನು ಪ್ರೇಮಿಸದಿರಬಹುದು, ಅದೆಷ್ಟು ಪ್ರೀತಿಸಿದೆ ಅವಳನ್ನಂದು
ನನ್ನ ದನಿ ಗಾಳಿಯನ್ನು ಭೇಧಿಸಿ ಅವಳನು ಅರಸುತಿತ್ತಂದು

ಹಿಂದೆ ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರೇಮದ ದೇವತೆಯಗಿದ್ದವಳು,
ಅವಳೀಗ ಅನ್ಯರಿಗೊಲಿದಳೇ?
ಅವಳ ಶಾರೀರ, ಅವಳು, ಅವಳ ಅನಂತ ಕಂಗಳು

ಅವಳನು ಪ್ರೀತಿಸದಿರಲು ನನ್ನಿಂದ ಸಾದ್ಯವೇ?
ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಕ್ಷಣಿಕ, ಮರೆಯುವುದು ಬಲು ದೀರ್ಘ

ಅವಳನು ಬಾಹುಬಂಧನದಲಿ ಬಳಸಿದ ರಾತ್ರಿಗಳೆಷ್ಟೋ
ಅವಳಿಲ್ಲದೆ ನನ್ನ ಅಂತರಾತ್ಮ ಚೈತನ್ಯ ಹೀನವಾಗಿದೆ

ಇದು ಅವಳಿಂದಾಗುವ ನೋವುಗಳ ಕೊನೆಯೇ?
ಇದು ನಾನು ಅವಳಿಗರ್ಪಿಸುವ ಕೊನೆಯ ಕವಿತೆಯೇ?

I do not take any credit for the above translation. It is just an humble effort to feel Pablo Neruda's emotions in my mother tongue.

My Valentine date...

2009-02-16T22:29:00.000+05:30

This valentine day, I had a date. When the whole country was divided into preposterous opinions about Valentines day, I had surrendered myself to my date for 2 full days. Nobody had any reason, however devoid of wisdom it could be, to deride us.
My date was the very mother nature herself. I just lost myself exploring hidden treasures of western ghats.

It all happened in a very dramatic way. I desperately needed a break from everything. It had been a long time since I had detached myself from everything. I was getting more discontented at both personal and professional aspects. I was thinking of ways to redeem myself from gloominess. That is when Google recommended some blogs based on my reading habits and interests. One of them was http://sharavathi.blogspot.com/. I was on cloud 9 after going through it. It is maintained by Sampath, who is an avid nature lover and a techie like us. The post that he is arranging another trek on 14th and 15th was even blissful. Just what I wanted.

Everything was set and the friday the 13th wasn't unlucky for me. I found myself in the sleeper coach of Maharaja travels that was arranged by Sampath. A group of 8 other people had signed up for the trek, all of whom were strangers and would later become great company. The great team consisted of Arjun, Karen(from Sweden), Jovin, Mohan, Parag, Prasanna, Rajesh, Shivakumar, Sachin and Shashi, thats me.

Sharavathi that later would become Jog Falls

Another view of Sharavathi

Family!!(ಕೋಳಿ ಸಂಸಾರ!!)

The bus took us to a town called Kargal. On the way, in Sagar Narayan our guide and Gangadhar the cook, joined us. At Kargal we freshened ourselves in river Sharavathi. After breakfast we were loaded into a Tata 207 pickup truck and driven to trek starting point. The ride was unforgettable as it loosened all our muscles which was like a warm up for the trek. The groceries were distributed to everyone to carry along with foam sheets for sleeping.

Ready for a tiring journey on pick-up truck

A home on the way!

Hay sack

Distributing groceries

We started our trek following Narayan into apparently raw forest, where there was no apparent sight of a trail until we reached a small stream. We followed the stream downhill balancing on slippery rocks. A wrong step would result in twisted ankles which is the last thing a trekker would want to endup. After several hours of walking, it was time for lunch. Sridhar and Gangadhar prepared toothsome lunch which was delectable along with the pickle. I think our hungriness, the nature, firewood, stone stove and the forest factor into the wonderful taste.

Get Set Go...

Some strange thing

Vegetables

Cooking

After lunch, we walked futher downstream passing a couple of waterfalls of few feet height. I somehow managed to keep my shoes dry, when most of everyone slipped and fell into the water. But at the end all my effort went in vain, as I had to voluntarily walk into the water!! The attraction of the first day was a falls which was about 10 feet high. It was precious because it was not easily accessible, innocent from civilization. Otherwise it was very normal and not worth the effort that we expended. But least I knew was that it was just the beginning.

Slippery rocks

Trails that can be easily missed

Careful negotiation

One of mini waterfalls

Ferns
First day attraction
My trusted Reebok!!

Dreamland!?

One important thing I would like to emphasize here is I was not feeling exhausted at any point in time. When the stream falls few feet deep, it is very difficult to negotiate the rocks. So we climb up almost 80 deg steep mud bank and climb down at a safer place. This is very risky as the mud could be very slippery and descending at this steep is very tiresome on muscles. One wrong step will lead to damage to some part of the body on sharp stones. But we were all blessed by mother nature.

Closest civilization from this point was about 4~5 km on the other side of the hill. It was not so stressful trek for about 1.5 hours before we stopped to take a glimpse of setting sun. I was still wondering about my stamina till this point.

ಕೆಂಪಾದವೋ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕೆಂಪಾದವೋ!!

Night halt was at PaDubeeDu, a single house in the forest. In dark I indulged myself into stargazing and virtually halted my cerebrations looking at the dark sky and innumerable stars. A campfire was arranged in the warmth of which we played anthakshari. It was a good mix of Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and English songs. Then followed scrumptious dinner, I particularly liked the payasa and had two servings of the same.
It was very cold night and the bedsheet I had carried was useless, so I hardly slept.

Campfire

Some interesting capture!!

Morning woke up at 6 and found myself eating breakfast by 7. We set out for the big day by 7:30. None of us knew what was the day's attraction as Narayan was eluding my questions. Again the trekking was into the thick jungle and this time was very steep, downhill. I hardly got a chance to take my camera out to take some snaps. It seemed like endless descent and was wondering if I can make it while coming back. But I was amazed how my muscles were responding to my will. In fact I was ahead of the crowd most of the times.

ಎಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ಪಯಣ? ಯಾವುದೊ ದಾರಿ?

Dead Tree

After what seemed to be an eternity of descent, I could hear a faint sound of waterfall but I was still inside thickets. Finally I reached the bottom of the valley, after a short climb upstream, there it was, the blissful view of beLLigunDi falls. I was awestruck and went into a trance. The nature had hidden this treasure and this sight was perfect reward for my date. The falls is approximately 500 feet high.
I started climbing rocks and running towards the bottom of the falls. I felt like some kind of spirit was invigorated inside me. I took some more snaps and found myself running into the water to the foot of the falls. I did not care for chilling cold water. Just stood under the falls. I was there for about an hour. I think that experience is hard to explain in words.

beLLigunDi falls

Finally the reawrd was worth all the effort. At last it was time to say good bye to the falls, head back to fuel ourselves for the humongous uphill trek. I took the lead and started climbing up with Narayan behind me guiding me on almost inconspicuous trail. Again I was amazed at the way my muscles were responding to my will. I never felt exhausted. I just enjoyed every step of climb and kept going. In the whole climb, which was about at least ~4 km, I just took two breaks, as Narayan insisted. In my earlier treks I used to be the long pole in the group and it used to take all the fun away. But this time, I was on top, I was on cloud 9.

We made it to the paDubeeDu at around 4PM. Only lamentable part was that Karen lost her mobile somewhere on the way and couldn't trace it.
Again endured the trecherous journey to Kargal singing high spirited songs of all known languages. On the sleeper coach, I just surrendered to sleep goddess who took me into never-never land that took all the pain away.

Back to Bangalore with much needed warm-start. It was wonderful trip, dating with nature and meeting a very good natured like minded people. I am sure I would do more such trips in future.

Out of sight...

2009-02-03T22:53:00.000+05:30

Out of sight is out of mind, they say. I think that is what has happened to my blogging too. I don't want this to happen to my blog.

Here is a quick recap.

I think the year 2009 did not begin with a positive signs to anybody. It is sad to see/hear what is happening in the world. I hope and pray to almighty to end this madness soon.

My office shifted to Marathalli. All the privilege I had with office within 5 min from home is gone now. First week I enjoyed the traffic jams on outer ring road. I particularly enjoyed the ride back home in night, the music, loneliness and the feeling of all man for himself. I was particularly worried about my roadrage. I was amazed at my patience, I never lost temper so far. I don't care how others drive, I just be myself.
After 2 weeks, I am getting bored with monotonic traffic jams, mindless who don't care for red lights.
Number of vehicles increasing at rate more than our sluggish governament's projections, road repairs at snail's pace, all these are OK, if our road users understand and co-operate. Everybody seems to be in a mad rush, as if the world is going to end in few moments. I make it a point not to violate any rules as well as not to squeeze between gaps and cause annoyance to other drivers. But the result is I get left behind, but that is OK. I wonder why our people take life so easily. Everyday I see lot of lives just escape in fraction's of a second.
So far I have clocked 35min to 1 hour for 16km drive. I need to find alteranate transport since summer sun is already getting torturous.

Another thing worth mentioning is the music in some of the latest kannada movies is just amazing. Especially, hoovina baaNadante from movie birugaLi. Shreya's voice is just amazing, the initial hum is mind-boggling.

And my photography is going at a good pace, except that I hardly manage some time for post processing and publishing my work. I will take some action on this soon.
That's very much what is happening so far....

"No procrastination drive" - First step

2009-01-14T20:31:00.000+05:30

I had my first success in my "No procrastination drive". I have a list of things that are pending because of my indolence and inertia.
One such pending thing was my bike insurance. This had been pending for almost 3 years. I finally got it done on Tuesday. As a punishment to myself, I did not want to get it through an agent. I went to Insurance office and got it done. Though it was not significant, I felt a great deal of accomplishment!!!

There is an endless list of such things which I intend to accomplish in this year. All the best to myself!!

New year resolutions - 2009

2009-01-01T23:24:00.000+05:30

First of all, let me wish a very happy new year to one and all... I hope year 2009 brings contented life to everyone.

Year 2008 was a great one. Probably the most significant year in my life so far. I had a fair share of successes this year. Few of my dreams fulfilled, few more got added into my bucket list.
I also had quite a share of failures too. Few of them changed the course of my life, few of them shaped me into what I am today. I can emphatically say that 2008 was a turning point in my life.
Above is true for both professional and personal front.

The year 2008 began with a bang, shattering one of my fondest dreams. There were other setbacks, but these are reserved for my "ಮೌನದೊಳಮನೆ"(Inner palace) .
I was awarded "Technical achievement award", the highest engineering award in my company, along with fellow teammates, co-authored for 2 patents finally ending the year with an "Individual Excellence award".
I managed to shed some weight too, though I did not go on any trekking trips year. My sister's marriage got fixed.

Professionally it was a very hectic year, working on a product with challenging development cycle, as a lead system engineer.

Those were the highlights. As I step into new year 2009, I need to have a strategy as undoubtedly 2009 is going to be even more challenging, both professionally and personally. As I retrospect on things that did not go well in 2008, the main reason I found is my procrastination.

So this year's my mantra is no-procrastination. Procrastination is a killer.
There is no meaning to "I don't have time". Everyone has 24 hours only.
Sometimes I need to swim against the tide, most of the times I went along with it.
I need to give due diligence to my hobbies (I will write about my hobbies later)

There are many other things I had in mind, but unable to remember now. Nevertheless, I am looking forward for more challenges and surprises in 2009. Welcome 2009....

My blood is of no value!?!?

2008-11-27T06:47:00.000+05:30

This happened yesterday. There was a blood donation camp at office. I thought of contributing to the noble deed, and the fact that some part of me will do some good to someone else took me there. I had just returned from US 2 days ago, from the hectic life with no or little time to sleep. I was told that my BP was high and asked to wait for another 10 minutes. Again, it was same. I don't know, could be because of the journey or the life-style in US caused it.

OK, I was ineligible for blood donation. Oh man the project costed me some personal damage too... All that is fine, I know I will be normal after a week, but what made me sad was what I was told by the lady who tested my blood pressure.

In order to make me less nervous(anyway I was not), she told my blood group is very common and "It does not matter if you do not donate". Oh my god, I am anyway worthless, and so is my blood!!!
Though I know that she didn't literally mean what she said, but some low priority thread spawned in my head thinking about that....

Back in homeland!!

2008-11-27T06:24:00.000+05:30

Finally, I am back home. After about 2.5 months of living in US of A, which gave me much needed break to unleash my 'True' Aquarian nature. I realized that it is often good to be alone for sometime to introspect, retrospect one's own life and come up with a list of changes and chase them.
In these 2.5 months I had enough experience to last a lifetime. It was like a thriller movie, nobody knew if the project will see happy ending or tragedy. Last 2 weeks were as dramatic as any telugu movie. Everyday was so unpredictable, my heart skipped several beats, several times a day. Finally everything ended on a happy note. It was a perfect rat-race, it was my desperate attempts to escape.
The journey was smooth. I watched 3 movies, Journey to the Center of the earth, Wanted and Mama Mia, back to back from Chicago to Frankfurt. Slept most of the time on the last flight to Bangalore.
Here I am ready for another rat-race!!!

A Saturday to remember!!!

2008-11-18T10:31:00.000+05:30

Of late I had been thinking of doing some crazy things that I had never done before. It all started with my attempt to Cast Away. It seem to give me some crazy pleasure. I feel like, life is laughing at me and by doing some crazy things, I am laughing back at life!!

One Saturday, 9 Hours, 16km, 0 deg C, no particular reason.
On a saturday morning, I decided not to spoil it as I usually do. So I decided to go for a walk. I took map of Bestbuy on google(Google has map for walk). It gave me optimal route, like left on 112th st, right on 113th st, left on 115th st etc. Temperature outside was 0 deg C, and sun seemed to to be enjoying the saturday by taking break from his duty. It was very windy. Soon after 5 min of walk, my body was forcing me to go back to cozy hotel room. But I was determined not to give up. I was a stupid enough to wear a sweater at last moment.
I felt like wind was piercing through the neck and face, whereever skin was not covered. I was the only living being on the roads. After sometime, my body got adapted to cold.

I walked for about 2.5 hours and covered 7km to reach Bestbuy. Then visited Kohls, Walmart. These shops are so huge, I must have walked few kms inside shops. Then I saw Borders a few blocks away. A hot Capuccino Large with a travel magazene felt like heaven.

It was already dark outside. On the way paid a visit to Circuit city. Then realized I had not written down return journey through shortcuts. I just followed road grids to reach back to the hotel. It was scary at times, walking alone in dark night.

Only highlight of entire day was the Capuccino at Borders and sound sleep... After all, I couldn't ask more!!!

Cast Away...

2008-11-09T04:10:00.000+05:30

Lately I had been feeling very low on spirit and morale and I don't seem to understand the reason. I feel like I am losing or have lost something and I am not getting it back. I am unable to sleep properly and feel sleepy at office. I was thinking about the movie Cast Away. I wanted to be castawayed....
Incidentally my horoscope read,
"bla bla bla.. suggests that you could face an old ghost today as something reminds you of a childhood memory, a previous illness or an emotional hurt. As unsettling as this encounter feels, remember that you can heal the past through understanding and forgiveness. Also, keep in mind that what's happening now is not the same as what happened a long time ago."
How this person reads whats going on with me....
So I decided I really needed to sleep today, so I did something that I had never done before!!!
Any guesses... Nope you won't get it.

I started running, I wanted to runaway from everything. I ran, walked and ran again for almost an hour. I had run a long distance, but I was right there, where I started running... I was running on a treadmill. I had run for 61 min 20 sec, 7.23km, 500 cal spent. I was amazed, I could still go on. In the gym, watching Cast Away, I had run so long... what a contrast, in the movie, Tom Hanks wanted to come back and in reality I wanted to be castawayed...

I had a stroll outside the hotel after dinner. The temperature was close to freezing. It felt good.
I had a dreamless sleep.

Time went back!!!!

2008-11-03T08:11:00.000+05:30

I was hoping to witness it ever since I learnt about day light saving concept. The time going back!! I was awake in the midnight to witness it myself. A romantic drama, 27 Dresses, was giving much needed entertainment. I was watching the time on my laptop. When it was 1:59:59AM, next second it jumped to 1:00:00AM!!! Wov, it was kind of exciting to witness it live and awake.

My previous stays in US was in Arizona where they don't follow this funny day light saving. So I never had witnessed it.

Now we ended day light saving time and back to what this longitude is supposed to be at. Daylight saving is an attempt to have more sunlight in the day after work hours due to various reasons. One logical reason seems to be saving energy. There are various reasons on the net. In winter sun seems to be in a mad hurry to finish his daily job, so days are very short.

Per Mahendra, we get to sleep an extra hour!!! So I think I will sleep half hour extra and utilize the other half to cook food for afternoon. Better compromise!! I hope no more starving in the name of fruit diet!

Flying High

2008-10-21T08:25:00.000+05:30

One fine day I was in the lab slogging as usual. One of my managers here came by to see what I am upto. I gave him a demo of new features we are developing. Well, I work on cockpit display products. Currently working on adding new weather display products to an existing display system. It happened that he was a hobby pilot and invited me to fly with him, if I was interested!!! Why wouldn't I be interested?? He told we would go on following Friday.

Then I forgot about it in my busy debugging. Friday he came and asked me if I am ready. Oh man, I was born ready!! Then we drove to the nearby New Century airport, and I found myself in the cockpit of Cessna 172, a 4 seater single propeller airplane.

Cessna 172 - The most number of planes ever built, about 43000 planes built and still under production!!

Kansas River

Kansas River - More views

K10 and K7 intersection

My office!!
More views

More planes at the airport

It was dream-come-true moment. The bird smoothly took off. It was totally different from those jet-liners which shake the nerve off for the first timers. I have to admit I was nervous initially. It was marvelous watching the beatyful landscapes from 1500 feet high. We flew over our office, and those freeway loops, I neve thought they appear so beautyful. It was amazing 30 mins of flying. Landing was very smooth. So it was a perfect beginning to the weekend....

Crazy days

2008-10-11T10:00:00.000+05:30

Hmm... here I am, watching The Matrix on HBO after a cup of strong, hot coffee which is failing to get rid of my head ache, on a friday night, that would be a saturday in any moment...

There are so many things happened since my last post.

First of all I am happy to announce my sister's engagement. It all happened in a jiffy, I am not sure if I realized it myself. I had been having the most hectic time at office, and so at home front. There was no time to even panic, anyway everything just fell in place. All is well that ends well.

The very next day I was on my way to the Bangalore International airport on a long journey to US of A. That puts a comma or semicolon or whatever to my 70~80 hours work week and force me to compress all that within 50 hours week. I am allowed to work only 11 hours a day and 5 days a week. No time to fool around. Just work like a machine, and I have managed to do it for 4 weeks now.

Now I am sipping Coke in the hope that it would give some relief to my head ache!!

Oh, I just realized it is Saturday!!! After 4 weeks, I am planning to visit Kansas city zoo tomorrow, to quench the thirst to my camera and lens!! Oh by the way, I am currently located in Overland Park, Kansas.

Watching 'The Matrix', I was making chapathi. I started thinking if the chapathis are real? Of course they have to be because, it was in no shape of a chapathi!!! Well they tasted nice.
I am really proud of my culinary skills. I have not starved in last 4 weeks. Except one day I had to stick to fruit diet because I had watched this movie 'Milana' the previous night.

It looks like coffee and coke combination is making things worse, my head ache didn't come down at all, probably I need some sleep...

My last chance!!

2008-08-29T08:01:00.000+05:30

My horoscope yesterday was very funny, it read "You could meet up with a dramatic individual today who expresses admiration toward you. If he or she doesn't feel noticed, you might not get a second chance."

I kept watching if anybody is observing me, hoping that it would be some "she", but unfortunately nothing happened. Did I loose my chance? Will I not get a second chance?

Hope is a good thing... good thing never dies. Life goes on!!!

Friends and acquaintances...

2008-08-05T04:04:00.000+05:30

In the course of life, we meet a lot of people. Most of whom we forget and few become very good friends. Friends whom we meet everyday, with whom we go on jolly trips, watch movies, fight, do soul searching, discuss all the gossip, criticise everything under the sun and what not. A day is always around the corner, when we have to depart, move towards our destiny in our own ways.

I found most of best friends in engineering. It was during engineering that I stuck to one place for the longest time during my education. Last I had this feeling was on the send off day. I felt like world is going to end. I never meet my friends again. It was a kind of painful feeling that one can only feel, difficult to put in words.

Now again I am feeling that pain. After about 7 years. The reason, one of my best buddy in office, Vamsi has departed in his own career path. I had known him for 3 years. Our frequencies were properly aligned. We used to discuss everything under the sun, we worked for the same project for about 2 years and got some patents filed too(of course with few others). I never felt bored in his company.

Though emails and orkut keeps the friendship alive, life will never be the same. I hardly speak to my college friends once in a week. I have not met many of them since college days. Somehow life gets adjusted over time and keeps moving. Time heals anything and everything.

I am damn sure this time, it takes longer to heal. But till then I will be feeling this awkward, confusing sensation.

Jetlag or may be not

2008-08-05T03:45:00.000+05:30

A day after returning from tiring firefighting trip to USA, am I feeling jetlag? I am not sure because I didn't feel it in US. I don't know why I woke up at 3AM in the morning and couldn't sleep again.

To kill boredom, thought of doing some soul searching.

First to all my friends, Happy Friendship day. It was on Aug-3, Sunady. This Sunday was very short for me. All I know about sunady is morning at 10 I reached Frankfurt. After leaving at 12, by the time I reached Bangalore it was already Monday!!!

I ask myself what have I been doing lately? Slogging in office everyday... All work and no play makes anybody dull. So is the case with me.
I need a jumstarting in reading. It is hard to realize that I haven't read a single book in this year. I have not gone on any trekking this year. Oh my god, I am having serious problems. I need to do some root cause analysis and bring my life back on track!!

Butterflies - Winged Jewels

2008-07-14T23:26:00.000+05:30

It had been a very busy month and I hardly had any weekend off from work since 4 weeks. When Saravana and Vamsi called me to visit butterfly park at bannerghatta, I couldn't say no. I desperately needed a break and my horoscope said "having fun or not is in my hand and I need not slog like a donkey everyday" - I wonder how do they know so much about me!!

Weather was amazing for the ride, perfect cloudy yet not dull. It was hardly 20 mins drive from my office on bike. The roads are very good. The park is beautifully made and well maintained.

Entry fee is Rs 20 per person and 10 for kids. Camera will cost additional Rs. 20. One thing I liked very much is, as we entered the park, the gaurd asked us to not leave any plastic items in the park. I hope everybody follows that.

Entrance to the park

There is a big circular structure surrounded by metal mesh and a huge dome as its roof. Inside the structure is a beautyful garden with a lot of flowering plants. Inhabitants of this floral heaven are winged jewels - beautiful butterflies. There is an artificial waterfal and a small tank with few colorful fishes - though water was hardly enough for those fishes to breath.

I think it was not the right season for butterflies, there was not a veriety of them. Since it was first time for me, I liked them very much. I learnt names of few varieties too!! It is the best place to learn lighting and macro photography.

This is my best shot!!

Stripped Tiger

I forgot their names!!

It was a pleasant, refreshing, very much needed break after a long time. I had been working on Bannerghatta road since 6 and half years and staying close to it since 4 years and never been to bannerghatta. It is nice to have such a place close to Bangalore.
A word of caution - don't expect a swarm of hundreds of verieties of butterflies here. It may be just the beginning.

Random thoughts...

2008-07-03T22:48:00.000+05:30

After a long time I am feeling very light, sitting in front of my PC, listening to my favorite melodies at home on a Sunday night. Absolutely no worries about Monday, how very strange!!
I don't remember when I was so relaxed. I feel like I have all the time in the world to do everything I ever wanted to do!!

It is first weekend I am at home in the evening since 4 weeks. That is merely a fact and definitely can not be a reason for my happiness.

Whatever it is, I definitely need a break, a good one. I hope Sridhar's next week plan materializes and importantly I will be part of it.

For the records, I have been implementing a particular feature in a short term project for almost 1 month. I have been slogging every day but no success. I have never felt so miserable in my professional life before, I finally missed my deadline and I have no confidence of finishing it sooner.
This can not be the reason for my feel good mood, but somehow, somewhat it is good for me. All the best for myself for the week ahead!!

The Story so far....

2008-06-29T23:36:00.000+05:30

It appears like I manage to post something at least once a quarter!!! That's not something I wanted though.... We are almost halfway through the year 2008, so at least it is about time for me to post my new(may be not so new!!) year resolutions. If I am not living upto those resolutions, at least it pricks me during retrospection(I hope to do one!!!).
Well, I had decided that the year 2008 is going to be the year of changes, the changes I very much wanted in life, but had been procrastinating. So simply put, I wanted it to be the year of actions. I resolved that I have a starting problem, I hesitate to do anything new. I am worknig towards resolving this....

I made few decisions, few of them which I remember are:
1) I don't want to be the victim of lifestyle related diseases mainly obesity. I knew that I was way overweight. I could feel it. Many times I was embarrassed of my heaviness.
Status : I have had fair amount of success in this case. I should be ever thankful to my friend and colleague vamsi who took me to office gym. Though he discontinued after a couple of weeks, I never stopped. Now after 3 months I have managed to shed some 6kg of fat and even managed to grow some muscles :) (I can feel it though it is not apparent)
Only drawback of this activity is that I loose about an hour and half everyday :(

2) Start some hobbies
This is a bit tricky. I deliberated on some of my interests, I am pursuing them. I like to learn a musical instrument, photography, learning new languages.
Status : Not much success in this one, but I have not given up the vigor.

3) The fate of my higher studies. I am pursuing my MS at Illinois Institude of Technology, sponsored by my company.
Status : I had decided to table this one last year. If I don't write GRE this year, it is as good as it is permanently shelved. History says dropouts have better prospects!!!

In general, year 2008 is indeed the year of changes. It is an year to remember(I should write more to do so). I believe my life has been through a full 180 degree phase shift. Everything I wished to happen, as simple as tossing a coin to the matters that would have changed the course of my life, backfired on me. Not a single wish of mine has come true so far. But I don't regret it. Some of the real good things have happened that I had neither wished nor expected. Few of them worth mentioning here are winning of Technical achievement award, filing first patent!!

Thats what it is so far. I hope the latter half of the year will be even more challenging and exciting than former one.

Hyderabad Blues

2008-03-31T23:41:00.000+05:30

I never expected this trip was going to be one of my best, unforgettable trips. The occasion was my colleague cum buddy, Vamsi's wedding at Hyderabad(On Friday, the 28th of March, 2008).

Manish, Salil and I were the three musketeers set to freak out in Cyberabad. Only preparations we had made was, booked tickets for onward and return journey, that made sure that we reach Hyderabad on Friday and come back to Bangalore on Monday. None of us had any idea of what are we going to do on Saturday and Sunday.
Our bus(Airavat - KSRTC volvo) got delayed in Majestic and I was worried for this bad start. I did not had a slightest hint that this was the only thing that was not going our way. We reached Secunderabad at 9:30, lucky us, we got down from the bus a 100 mts from the hotel where the reservation had been already made for us(Thanks Vamsi for the hospitality). Got freshened up and started our discovery. Ate biriyani(of course veg for me ;)) at Paradise and felt like walking to get rid of heaviness. We walked on the road that was leading to the wedding venue, and after a while, we reached the venue!!! Probably we were the first guests to reach the venue!! It was about 3 kms from the hotel.

Chatted with Vamsi and had nice, chilled tender coconut water(gulped another cup each later!!). We were again forced to have lunch there, which of course had nice dishes. After loading our tummies to the brim, we had no choice but to walk back to hotel. Back at the hotel, Manish and Salil kipped down to catch some Z's. I was watching TV and never realized that I too had dozed off on the chair.

Evening, came Salil's buddy, cool dude Abhinav, who told us that he would take us out on both days in his car. I never expected that we are going to this lucky. Evening, attended the wedding. Well, the knots were tied at around 10:30PM, most of the hall was empty by that time, strange that people had already left after relishing the sumptuous dinner. We too had our tummy-full of nice food. We had already gulped down 4 cups of fruit juice before that.. Another walk to hotel followed.

Vamsi and Rajivalochana

Wish you both have a wonderful married life and live happily ever after

Day 1, Saturday: Real fun started on Saturday. Manish and I set out for the Hussain Sagar Lake and walked on Tank bund, Necklace road and visited Sanjeevaiah park which is known for bird watching. Abhinav and Salil picked us up from the park. We went to Golkonda fort which is in ruins, built during 16th century. It has got some chambers whose roof(dome) is acoustically built with symmetric reflecting hollow diamond shape. If you clap exactly under the dome, the sound echoes several times and the echo can only be heard if you stand witin 7 feet from the center. It is an amazing architectural masterpiece. Did some hiking there to reach top of the fort. One can get a nice view of Hyderabad city from the top.

Tanker - on tank bund

Sanjeevaiah Park

Sanjeevaiah Park - another view

Golkonda Fort - From Entrance

Golkonda Fort - Side view

View of City from top of Golkonda fort

Then we went to the place that all 3 of us were waiting for. The High-Tech city. The drive through posh areas of Banjara Hills, GachiBowli was wonderful with eye-catching bunglows and luxury. We were mesmerised by the magnanimity of the Microsoft campus, wonders of ISB at GachiBowli. We were spellbound by the stunning architecture of ravishing Cyber towers at Hi-Tech city, google campus... I am wordless as I am writing this line. I thought this place is the heaven for mortals like us, Software Engineers. No doubt all three of us were thinking of updating our resume!!!

Entrance to Indian School of Business

Microsoft - My dreamland!!

After all this wonderful, heavenly Cyber paradise, Abhinav took us to another paradise for food. Ohri's Baseraa. An awesome place for food lovers where quality is never compromised, at the same time justifying quantity and price. I had nice, huge batura with chana. Ice cream is the speciality of this place. I would vouch for this place to anyone visiting Hyderabad to visit one of Ohri's(They have some 20 branches).

Chana - batura

The Titanic Ice cream

Then we decided to watch a movie in Prasad's IMAX. From local news paper we found that 10000 BC was playing in the evening. Amazingly, we got tickets for the movie which was about to start in 1 hour on a weekend. Can't imagine this in Bangalore, can we? Tickets are so cheap, for IMAX it was just Rs.150. The theater had many attractions. We took plunge into the haunted house and scared the inmates(scarers) to their life!!!

Movie was ok-dokey except for some fine graphics. I am planning to have a separate post about the movie, so watch out.

Thus, our wondeful, eventful saturday ended with sweet memories.

Day 2: Sunday

Started extremely relaxed, no hurry whatsoever. Visited old city, Charminar and Salr Jung Museum. It is a huge museum with a lot of personal collections of Salar Jung III. It takes about a day to see all the stuff. There is a famous musical clock, luckily we were there just in time when it timed 2'O clock. We spent somemore time until it started boring. Had lunch at famous bavarchi's, I didn't personally like the food.

The historic Charminar

We set out to the Runway9, which is a theme park with go-karting, shooting, archery, bungee jumping etc. We raced our nerves, had good luck at shooting as well with 3 of 6 hits. Archery was ok-dokey as none of us are descendants of Arjuna. I managed to send my arrows within the boundary of the bullseye.
It was time to pack up and say bye-bye to the wonderful city of Hyderabad. When we reached station, our midas touch was still not fading. Our coach stopped right in front of us, where others were left to run to reach their's. Though it is called Garib Rath, it is a posh train with nice interiors. Each coach had heating ovens and refregerators to keep colas chilled. It was comfortable ride to Bangalore ant the train reached on the dot at 7:05AM. I was still lucky to get the bus to my home without even waiting for a minute.

Interior of so called Garib rath!!

It was a wonderful, most relaxed, unforgettable trip to Hyderabad. Hyderabad is very vast, spacious city which is not behind any other city in pollution. Hussain Sagar is a polluted lake that stinks. It has huge parks and a lot of greenery is well preserved.

First step towards the change

2008-02-08T22:50:00.000+05:30

Well begun is half done, they say. I advanced one step towards my greatest ambition. However tiny and silly it is, but still it is towards my goal. That is what matters!!!

What I am talking about is the purchase of 4GB high speed compact flash.

It sounds silly isn't it? Before buying camera and not having decided which lens to buy, I bought a silly memory card and I feeling proud of it!!! Horoscope from tarot.com was also telling me the same. It has been so consistent all these days that I think somebody is reading my mind.

Anyway, I am happy that I am advancing towards my goal, at snail's pace may be.

My new Gizmo

2008-02-05T09:30:00.001+05:30

Dell Precision M4300:
Intel Core 2 duo 2.4 GHz, with 4MB cache
800MHz FSB
15.4 inch Wide Screen WSXGA+ TrueLife LCD Panel
4.0GB, DDR2-667MHz SDRAM(Mammoth... isn't it?)
80GB, 7200 rpm (Dell doesn't have smaller than that!!!)
NVIDIA Quadro FX 360M Graphics card
Wi-Fi, IR

This is the new laptop I got from my company. This thing is a beast... I hope I can use it to the fullest. At least, watching movies on this will be great.

Irony - To live rather than exist

2008-02-01T09:15:00.001+05:30

As usual, it seems there are lots of ups and downs in my attempts to live rather than exist. I was just experimenting with my daily timing. I tried getting up early and going to bed early. As they say early bird gets the worm, it is the wonderful to be an early bird. I was very active throughout the day. Seldom was I bored. No acidity, I had deep sleeps, never I wasted time simply rolling on bed and wait to fall asleep. Another best thing for being an early bird was the breakfast show by sunshine girl Vasanthi.

To make sure, I tried being a late bird for a week. I am very sloppy through the day. I feel sleepy during afternoons, unable to sleep properly during nights.

So today, I decided that I should be an early bird to make life better. Guess what is happening. Today happens to be Vasanthi's last breakfast show!!! What an Irony.

My wish for many things to go right one after the other is also backfiring. In fact many things are going in wrong way. But nothing can deter my efforts to live...

Taare zameen par

2008-01-31T22:24:00.000+05:30

Finally, I watched this much acclaimed movie. Its a very good movie with a very good message. But I wonder why parents of successful people feel guilty. This movie is not only for parents, but for school teachers who don't realize they are affecting the future of hundreds of people every year. I did not find anything in this movie that makes me watch it again. May be I am missing something....

Also, in bollywood movies many things go very smoothly. What about the kids whose parents aren't fortunate to earn handsome salaries.

It made me think about my past. When I was a kid, my only reason for existence was to pass in every class with flying colors. There was no scope for anything else. But my mother never forced me to be that way. Then why was I like that? Was it because it is an unwritten rule in the society that every kid's only dream should be pass with flying colors and be an engineer or doctor?
Anyway, I am what I am now. There is not use pondering about past.

Change is the color of life....

2008-01-26T22:53:00.000+05:30

I had been thinking of bringing some change to my pathetic, monotonous life, for a long time. But a few recent incidents in my life made me think about it too seriously. I think I simply exist, I have to do something to live.

I listed down all my options. Of course, I know what everybody thinks of as the first option. Somehow it doesn't appeal to me.
Reading - anyway I do that, not so seriously.
Writing
Music
Traveling
Photography
Working like a dog at office - That's what I had been pretty much doing all my life...

I am giving a very serious thoughts about music. I think keyboard is a good choice. I give credit to Vamsi(Teammate) for this option. This is my second option.

Then comes my next passion, Photography. I give credit to Saravana(Bird photographer) only for making 'Photography' as an option. I do know that this is a very expensive hobby. But it fulfills my other wises, traveling and writing. I like visiting new places.
I don't know what type of photography I am going to like. I think I like still life and landscapes. I think I like bird photography too.
That's where the confusion comes in. I have decided to buy a digital SLR, Canon 40D. My confusion is what type of lens to buy. I am right now exploring my options in lens.
Then comes the biggest question, where do I source the money from!!! I am working on it. I am expecting many things to go right, one after the other.

But somehow my horoscope predicts the otherway which goes like this : "Taking the extra step toward a pleasurable goal might seem like a great idea now, but you could be disappointed if your needs aren't met. There is enough working in your favor that it's easy to believe you'll get what you want. Unfortunately, your progress may slow down as satisfaction gets closer and closer. Don't try too hard or you could end up frustrated with what you don't have rather than content with what's already yours."
I wonder how exactly could they tell like this about me... anyway it is not going to stop my attempts to live(instead of mere existence).

A rendezvous with wild(life)

2008-01-13T21:20:00.000+05:30

After almost waiting for over an year, our team outing materialized. Most of us did not want a resort type of thing, we wanted to get out of our normal life of deadlines, debugging, fixing bugs. The place chosen was Jungle Lodges and Resorts(JLR, www.junglelodges.com) at K Gudi(Kyathadeva rayana guDi), near BR Hills. JLR @ K Gudi has 8 tent type cottages with twin beds and 3 log huts with 3 beds each. Our team size was 24(only 22 turned up), so all available accomodation was booked by my company.

Log hut

We left Bangalore on Sunday morning(6th Jan, 2008) at 7 AM(We planned to leave at 6, but we are used to missing deadlines, anyway!!). Packed breakfast at SLV and headed towards Mysore, as the roads are supposed to be good via Mysore. But it turned out that road was good only till Mysore.
As usual we played Dumb Charades of movie names. After breakfast Vamsi suggested an excellent memory game. First person tells a word, next person repeats the word and adds another and so on it goes. I was 13th in the order. I thought I would never be able to repeat previous 12 words as the words were very random. Amazingly the game went for successful 3 rounds, with last round coming in the reverse order. All of us(about 17) could remember and recite all 51 words in the proper order!!!
Here is the list of words(re-published): Bangalore, Awesome, Angel, Looks, Man, Great, And, the, Alok, Honeywell, Bus, BR Hills, Camera, Photo, Sleeping, Jaipur, ThagaDadum ThagaDadum ThagaDadum, Leopard, Mysore, Rajastan, Delicious, Tree, Jing Chak, Forest, Rohit, Pappu, Bablu, 661, Idea, Mosaranna, Disco, Banana, Caribbean Islands, Washout, Ganguly, Blank, Five Minutes, Horse, Dog, Safari, Jackpot, Yahoo, Old McDonald, Wov, Bye bye, Bingo, Stop this, Holiday, Khulja sim sim, XYZ, Enough

Dumb Charades!!!

We reached K Gudi by 1:45PM. Checked into rooms(Vamsi and I stayed in the last log hut, beyond which there was only forest!!), freshened up and were as ravenous as leeches(weren't we?). Food was above average. We had about 1.5 hours before safari, which starts at 4:30PM.

Few went to the nearby lake and we thought of having some serious fun. We climbed a nearby treehouse which was about 20 feet high. The tree house was cozy, I could spend my whole life in it, but for call of duty :(. Then we flocked on the Hammock. We were making so much of shouting and noise, all real monkeys were scared away!!!

Nervous and scared Dr. Satya!!

Inside Treehouse.. I could spend my whole life in it, but for "call of duty" :(

Hakuna Matata!!!

After a cup of strong coffee, we headed for the safari. Drive through the uneven terrain of the jungle tracks on Mahindra 4WdD was awesome. I was thinking, if at all I plan to change my career, I would become a safari driver @ JLR. I would give up all the comforts, broadband, my PS2, everything!!!

We did find some animals, spotted deer, sambar, barking deer, bisons and few elephants. Few elephants actually blocked our way for about 20 mins. It is their territory, we couldn't help, we had to just turn off the engines and wait for them to change their mind. Weeds in the jungle was so thick that, any animal, unless it wishes to reveal itself, we can't spot them. Spotting a leopard or a tiger in this jungle, with jeep's engine roaring and people chit-chatting(ignoring numerous protest from the driver!) is once in a life time feat.

All set for the encouter!!

Wondering about curious eyes of visitors!!

Whats wrong with you people?!?
Pachyderms, of course they have right of the way...

We reached JLR by 6:30 evening. I tried my hands at TT using broken rackets, few games of carrom before bonfire. Dinner too was above average. After dinner we gathered around the campfire and started our singing prowesses. It was a wonderful, starry night, I wished this night to go on forever. But almighty always has different plans, firewood was getting over and people started feeling sleepy.

After a bit of stargazing, I too kipped down into my cozy, cushioned bed. Through the window, next to my bed, I could see the dark sky above and thousands of stars. Wov, it was amazing. Lot of noise coming from the forest(ours was the last log hut!!), crackling of wood, insects making all types of sounds and sometypes crunching of dry leaves, as though somebody was walking. I quitely slumbered into my dreams.

I was brought back to reality by my mobile alarm at 5:30 in the morning. It was testing time for me. Can I take cold water wash in real cold(I take cold water bath everyday). It was good, my body didn't shudder at all. I was ready by 6AM for the so called trekking(It was indeed a walk through jungle). We should have chosen another safari instead. It was awesome feeling to breathe the cold air, alone in this serene forest with the comforts of cushioned chair!! I never realized I had spent half an hour savouring this treat by nature.

Our trek started at around 6:45AM. Few photo sessions on the way at various pit stops, we were back to lodges by 9:00AM. After breakfast, which was average, bath, we packed our stuff and were ready to say good bye to JLR which bewitched me to forget all my daily worries and enjoy the nature. One last time, Vamsi and I climbed on to the Hammock to feel the joy for the last time. Well, one never know when one gets a chance to be like our ancestors!!
We departed from JLR at around 10AM.

Serenity!! Art of almighty.

We, the Lesser mortals!!!, yet again art of almighty

Enroute trekking

On the way we visited BR Hills(BiLigiri Ranganatha) Temple. The road from K Gudi to BR Hills was wonderful. Thick vegetation of bushes on either side of the neatly paved road was like a perfect rectangular tunnel with only top open to the sky. The width of the tunnel was just enough for the bus to slip through. Bus was cruising effortlessly through the tunnel easing through the curves, thanks to the skills of the driver and power steering. Before I could capture this wonder in my camera I was once again failed by almighty. We were into civilization. How I always wish I had Dumbledore's pensive to preserve my memories.

On the way, we also visited Shivana Samudra(Gagana chukki falls only) and there was hardly any water. On the way had sumptuous lunch at Hotel Shivalli, just after Maddur. It appeared like nobody else had energy for any activity and many people were already catching Z's and some were watching Gangajal. I didn't want to watch a serious movie and spoil my mood after such heavenly trip. I switched on my mp3 player and don't know how many times Mungaru Male showered through my ears in loop...

We were at office by 7:00PM... Thats the end of our AFS(Architecture, Framework and Simulation) team outing. Oh man, I am feeling depressed as I am writing these lines. I was so energetic at the beginning. OK, let me face it straight, looks like somebody has got a case of mondays!!!

Have a good day.

The year that was 2007...

2007-12-23T14:03:00.000+05:30

Hmm.... 'man time flies', this has been the ultimate truth of year 2007. This year had been so fast, I can hardly realize that the year end is so close. I kept myself so busy through the whole year, now I find it hard to recollect the best and worst things that have happened in the year.

I failed to blog lots of things I was involved in, which I wished to cherish for a long time. Now they all have faded from my memory. I wish I had Dumbledore's pensive in which I could preserve my memory fragments!!

Now I try to recall the best things that have happened to me....

On the career side, I worked in the best project of my career and with great people.
2 of my best friends found their soul mates...
All my adventurous trekking trips, which I have failed to document in my blogs.
Innumerable Coffee time chats at office
Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows, though I felt like I was at the end of world after finishing it.
Oh... my mind is blank, I don't remember anything else.

The bad things that have happened.... I guess they are and will always be a part of me.

Sunday Adventure

2007-11-02T10:19:00.000+05:30

It was planned few days before. Probably Sridhar had it in his mind ever since he decided to buy the car.

The plan was to start early morning(3:30 ~4 AM) from Bangalore to Rayadurg and give his fiancee the biggest surprise, his new Swift. I guess Sridhar kept his surprise very well and overall it was a well executed plan.

Desperate to get a break from the busy work, I didn't even think and said "yes". Day before the journey Sridhar called me and told Venky had dropped, and he was the backup driver. The whole reality struck to at this moment. Reluctant to drop myself out at this time, I decided not to disappoint him. Moreover something in me assured that Sridhar can manage it.

The following day, I started at 3:45AM, in the drizzle to Sridhar's home. My bike was used to slushy roads, but on this day it was too much. Since it was night, my bike and I didn't bother much to road conditions. We started a little after 4AM and I had my first shock!!

Sridhar and his brother were reading user manual to switch on head lights, and demist. I got a bit worried about the whole idea, but it was too late. Sridhar was driving through road full of potholes, very smoothly. I got a bit of confidence. Kashi joined us at Tavarekere. Kashi is a bit over confident dude, but the positive side of him is, he can convince any fool that one can conquer the whole world. He is very talkative and has loads of stories to keep everyone engaged.

We had breakfast at Tumkur and later things were very smooth. Reached Rayadurg at around 1 PM, of course took lot of U turns on the way(which is Sri's favourites). Had sumptuous lunch and watched few movies in multiplex'ing mode. Drive back home was a bit tiring and reached home at 12:30AM. I had another journey to make back to my home in the slushy roads and drizzle. I was almost drenched by the time I reached home.

Overall summary of the trip proved Sridhar as an excellent driver. He never lost his composure. Though all of were doing a bit of backseat driving, he was following his instinct. It is one of those things that somebody does something for the first time.

Brain Story

2007-10-15T07:40:00.000+05:30

Recently I was watching some episodes of BBC's documentary, Brain story. I was just wondering, brain is such a complex instrument, even another brain can not understand it. The only edge human brain has is cognition. I don't know if the cognition can be attributed to only brain, but that makes humans superior.

That makes every human being a precious and complicated system. Everyone is so special.

It is amazing to know that even though every organ works normally, it is ultimately brain that does everything. Though our eyes are capable of seeing everything, it is up to our brain to really show it to us. Many times I was wondering how can brain or eye process such a file resolution of visual data. The reality is eyes see very little and rest of the data is filled by brain from the memory.
That leaves another mystery of memory. Nobody so far have been able to find how brain stores and retrieves memory. Most interesting phenomenon is Dejavu. It is amazing ability of brain to look into its huge database and make us feel dejavu.

Yet there is a heart which is equally complicated. But ultimately heart is also controlled by brain. But I feel heart has its own independent personality like brain. Most of the time we are controlled by heart too!!!

As a closing note, now I don't know if my brain or heart was controlling me when writing this!!!!

Eno onthara...

2007-10-13T23:00:00.000+05:30

This title had been my gmail status from a couple of weeks. Many people asked me about it. Well that has been my mood. I wish I knew.

Nowadays I make it a point to checkout my daily horoscope in Deccan Herald. I never believed in all these. Not do I believe now. But a funny thing is most of the days it matches with whats going on with me. Today it reads like this:
"You may develop a sense of your own uniqueness, and inner piece prevails, helping you to overcome anger".

Last word may be different but most of it is TRUE. I don't know why I am like this. I don't even know if I am alright. Something seems to be bothering me, but don't know what or why.

Time and again....

2007-09-30T23:50:00.000+05:30

Time and again, I learnt that things just don't happen. I have to make them happen.

Its been very long time... many things have happened in these months. I have got to scribble them down before they fade of from my memory and leave these months as dark areas in my peregrination.

Mansoon rain finally showered!!!!

2007-05-02T08:01:00.000+05:30

Yes!!! After months of desperate attempts, I, finally, watched 'Mungaaru maLe(Mansoon Rain)'. Generally, whenever I watch a movie I used to be left with one of two types of feeling. One, forget about the movie before even stepping out of the theater. Other, keep thinking about the movie for many days, I used to live in the movie for many days. But this one left me with a third type. I wanted to watch the movie again... I want to live this movie again...may be forever. I made desperate attempts to watch the next show... but luck was not on my side(as usual).

For the first time in my life, I felt like watching a movie again... I used to wonder how people watch same movie more than once. Now I know.

I liked everything in this movie. Not to mention its songs. I liked songs so much that, I bought the audio CD!!! I fell in love with rain(probably thats why it is not raining in Bangalore!!!). I think I fell in love with everything around me.

Any triangle love story ends in a tragedy. Of course, it is the same case with this movie too. But it couldn't have been ended in a better way, because I was not so depressed at the end of the movie. As the theme of the movie, "tyaga preetiginta doDDadu(Sacrifice is greater than love)", it has a decent ending. I liked the line "HaNeyali bareyada ninna hesara, hrudayadi naane korediruve(Your name is not written in my fate, but I have engraved it in my heart)". What a wonderful line. It conceals many deep emotions in few words. I wonder how lyricists think...

This movie has taken me to a different world. I think I am still not back to normal yet. I hope I stay their for more time...

April Fool...

2007-04-02T23:15:00.000+05:30

Looks like this april is really fooling me. To name a few...
1) Stock market crash
2) Looks like, my lesson number 2 is going to be proved again... oh man it really hurts.

I hope this fooling game stops here only.... and I don't see any surprises in my revision letter :-)

I repeat, "Hope is a good thing, may be the best of things"

noDu huDugi omme nanna... (look at me once....)

2007-03-31T00:07:00.000+05:30

Times is really flying. I am finiding it too tough to manage it. If there was a way to have more than 24 hours a day....

Mungaaru maLe
Well, probably I have set a record by listening to these songs for infinite number of times. Ever since I got these songs, from about 2 months, I have been listening to only(I mean only) these songs. Somedays more than 5-6 times!!! Everything in these songs is magical, lyrics, music, everything. Sometimes I fall in love with some of the instruments used, and want to learn. In fact I am still listening to the songs as I am typing....

What else is happening.... Last week, was planning to watch this movie, as usual I could not get tickets. Spent whole day playing carrom.
Sunday went to one of my colleagues village about 70kms from Bangalore. It was my longest drive on my bike. Nice drive, but it was very hot.
My TV is not yet fully repaired, so its kind of hiatus to PS2.
One good thing is I am watching lot of movies. Whenever I get a chance I would watch a movie.

I am planning to try my luck to watch Mungaaru maLe tomorrow, all the best to me!!!

Happy Ugadi(Ugadi shubhashaya)

2007-03-19T20:25:00.000+05:30

Ellarigu Ugadi habbada shubhashayagaLu. Hosa varsha ellarigu hosa anubhavagaLu, hosa bharavasegaLu, hosa yashassannu tarali endu haraisuve.
(A happy Ugadi to everyone. I wish new year will bring a lot of new happiness, hopes and success.)

Well, in one of the TV channels, they were predicting that for Salaried Scorpions(somebody like me!!) this year may not be successful. I read somewhere that, there are chances of me getting into fight with friends and relatives. I have no idea of how such predictions are made. But I hope no bad things will happen.

Hope is a good thing, may be the best of things.
- Stephen King

Today's Fortune!!!!

2007-03-19T18:18:00.000+05:30

"You are going to have a very comfortable old age." Hoo ha, this is orkut's Today's fortune. Good to know that I am not old yet.

Back to Form - Flashback

2007-02-25T22:57:00.000+05:30

Hmm... Long time no see... Yea quite a lot of things happened during these days and lemme recollect some of that....

First of all, a happy new year!!! Better late than never... Every year we wish the same and another new year comes, its a part of life anyway...
At office, we won second prize in Impact Innovation contest, and I bought a PS2 from the prize money!! It kept me busy all nights. I finished Prince of Persia - Sands of time. Now my TV is down, so no more PS2.
Met Guru after years. He stayed for about 3 weeks in bangalore before leaving to US of A for long time assignment. I keep meeting Sridhar often.
Happy Birthday, yes my birthday. My office friends(I don't want to use 'colleagues') gifted me a carrom board!!! Its a wonderful time-pass. In fact I always dreamt of buying a carrom board from my first salary. Well, it is more than five years since I am drawing salary and I was never able to buy it. My friends gifted it to me. Thanks friends.
Watched a lot of movies. After watching Fightclub, I am almost sure that I do have a split personality and I keep switching!!!
Cars- oh wonderful movie. I never expected vehicles to have emotions... Its an amazing movie.
Recently, I have been listening to songs of Mungaru maLe, and only those songs. I keep them in repeat mode, both office and home. Very meaningful and melodious songs, I must of listened to these songs more than 100 times but never got bored. Thats the magic of music, but this is beyond music.
Thats about it, I guess. Nothing really great happened during these days...
Hope I become regular from now on....

Kodachadri II

2006-12-08T21:19:00.000+05:30

Manju wanted to go to Kodachadri again along with his cousin. He had planned it on Nov 4th weekend. I had assignment due on 6th so I dropped out. But he could not get tickets for that weekend, so it was postponed to 11th weekend.
So I too joined the group along with Kiran. This time 2 new people(Kiran, my manager/colleague and Manju's Cousin) joined our trio group.

This time we had booked bus via Shimoga route since Mangalore route is so hopeless. Though a bridge had collapsed on this road recently, there was a makeshift road through villages. The bus left Bangalore at 8:30PM sharp. Conductor was a chatter box he was talking non-stop throughout the journey(a good thing to keep our driver awake!!!). He was very co-operative, he enquired others if the place we were alighting was correct.

Jeep Trail

Morning sunrays

Where is the path?!?!

Jungle Trail

Since the bus goes through Kaari Katte, no need to go to Kollur. We were at Kaari katte at around 7:45AM. Weather was perfect, not too hot nor too chilly. Absolutely no fog, so one could see Kodachadri peak clearly. During my previous trip we never saw the peak because of the fog. Reached Hotel Santosh(Kaaka hotel!!) by 9:00AM. After finishing morning routines and breakfast, we started our climb at 9:30. We were at the government guest house(temple) by 12:30PM.

View of Mountain Range - on the way

Into clearing

Rentry into woods

We ordered for lunch at the guest house itself(Bhatta's cook was not feeling well) and headed to take bath. Last time there was a small stream that jumps over a small rock forms a mini-waterfalls. This time the jungle path was covered by thick green plants and there was no sign of water at all. This is when Saravana knocked down a pipeline while trying to get down along a dangerous slope. It was a metal pipe and fell down towards the valley and we couldn't pull it. We got back to guest house to find that the pipeline was indeed connected to our guest house only!!! We lied to the guest house guy that the pipeline is damaged. Well, it was not a lie, it was half truth!!!

After the pipeline was repaired, it leads to a man-made-waterfall behind the guest house building(water falls from the pipe from about 15 feet). It was refreshing bath, with free hydro-massaging. After lunch majority of the group wanted to take a nap. I started to look at the beautyful nature through my camera...

Overview - from top of Kodachadri

We headed for the peak. There are many changes from last time. There is a pujari at the shankaracharya mantapa at the peak and a store that sells biscuits and chakkuli. It was very cloudy evening and sunset view was not possible. But we could get glimpse of Arabian sea for few minutes. That sight was amazing.

Linganamakki backwaters

Shankaracharya mantapa at the peak(one can see our shadow on the otherside)

Reflection of arabian sea - a rare sight!!!

Only camera can see this!!!

Another glimpse of sea!!!!

Everything in red tinge - sunset

It became very dark in a very short time. We had not taken torch. So it was a bit tough for Kiran to walk in darkness. Somehow we managed to get back safely.

Stargazing : It was amazing to see millions of stars in the sky. In Bangalore we hardly see any stars. Kiran was identifying different clusters as usual. I also saw galactic dust...
Dinner was arranged at the hotel, where we had dinner last time too. They gave curd rice and chapati.

Next morning, I woke up to the familar sound and as a habbit I stopped the sound and went to sound sleep. It was at 5:45AM I realized that I had switched off my mobile phone alarm. We all hurried to the sun-rise point. Sun was just coming out from the eastern sky. It was a good sun-rise view(better than last time). Sun was coloring the vast backwaters of linganamakki reservoir.

Sunrise

Everything in Red tinge - sunrise

Till this point we were in a known territory. After breakfast we headed for the unknown. The Hidlumane falls. The jeep driver dropped us to a trail that is supposed to take us to the hidlumane falls. Shortly after following the trail, we were deceived by the usual network of trails. At a Y junction, we took the one(right) that seemed more used and fresh. But at the end it took us to the peak and dead end. In fact it turned out that it was a path taken bisons.

Hide n seek path!!!

Finally on right track....

Later we followed that other one at Y junction that was taking us downhill. It seemed to be correct one and we were heading towards the sound of water. At the bottom, we were again given choice. Towards our left was a trail less frequently used going around the peak uphill. To the Right was a more prominent trail going around the same peak. It was decided to take the left one since it was going towards the sound of waterfall. After walking for some distance, another trail joined ours. I think it was probably the right side one, which was coming around the peak. After a while we entered into woods, where those ravenous, ever hungry creatures were waiting for us. After a while the sound of water falls was fading off. We could definitely not go back because we had descended enough, that would take off all our energy to go back. We kept on descending discussing our options. Suddenly we could see some paddy fields and thought at least we were heading to some civilization. Woods became thick and wet leaves on ground. It was a heaven for leeches. Though it was long after rainy season, still ground was wet and there were leeches(Not so many as in my last adventrue). In the woods there was again a Y junction. We took that right one, since it was taking us to our paddy fields. By the way there was no more sight of the paddy fields after we entered thick wooks. We reached the bottom of the valley and decided to walk to our left side. After a few minutes of walking, we saw the tiled roof of a house. Incidentally, it happened to be the house of Mr Gururaj, whose family is called Hidlumane and hence the falls at there backyard(abt 1 km) Hidlumane falls. At Gururaj's house all of us quenched our thirst. Falls is about 1 km from here and the bare foot walk through paddy fields was wonderful.

It consists of 7 waterfalls, last one being the best one. One just has to walk along the falls to go to the last and final one. To reach 3rd falls, was tricky. The rocks are very steem and one can not walk up the rocks. We had to climb up the steep, slippery muddy path, holding the roots of trees and other small plants. Remember, I was bare foot and this was leeche's territory. Anyway, I was helpless. I couldn't worry about leeches anymore as I had to used both hands and legs to maintain balance. Kiran was ahead of me and dropped a rock while he struggled to balance. And it fell on my both legs before going down. After climbing up we had to come down a bit to reach 3rd falls. Finally, we made it. I was worried about going back the same way!!! I stayed back with Kiran here and rest of the gang went up to the last falls. I don't know why I stayed back(definitely fear is not the reason). After taking bath here it was pretty relaxing.

Waterfall No 2

Waterfall No 4

Gururaj's paddy fields

End of unforgettable adventure...

Here ends our adventure and the rest of the story is boring. So I will make it short. We could reach main road in just less than 1.5 hours. As soon as we reached Nittur, we got the bus to Kollur. Had lunch, visited temple and we were ready to head back to our concrete jungle, Bangalore. Bus journey was smooth and we were in Bangalore at around 7:00AM.

Going Goa

2006-09-13T22:48:00.000+05:30

We had been thinking of this trip from a long time and finally made it. It is our regular gang of Manju, Saravana and I. Since Aug 15 was holiday, we took 14th off. Total of 4 days.

Friday, August 12: 8:30PM, Rajahamsa to Mangalore. Reached Mangalore at 6AM(The road is very bad and reached abt 1 hour late).

Saturday, one of the best part of trip : We had booked Madgaon passenger train to Madgaon. Total distance is 437km and train covers in just abt 7 hrs and fare is Rs.57 + reservation!!! No need to mention how beautyful is Konkan railway is. The train passes through more than 20 tunnels, longest one being more than 3km. On the way there were numerous water falls along the way and at some places water used to fall over the train. Weather was wonderful, it was drizzling intermittently. I did not realize the time, within no time we were in Madgaon.

We checked into a room at Kolva beach. We got a pretty cheap deal(Rs 350 per day). Hired 2 bikes(250 each, lil costly), and went zooming around. Visited Benaulem beach and Leela beach. More than beach, the ride on the Unicorn was groovy!!!
Benaulam beach ---->

Leela beach ------>

Sunday, August 13: Realized that there is nothing much in south Goa. So headed to Panaji which is the real Goa to see. It is about 2 hour journey in non stop Kadamba transport. A guy approached in bus stop in Panaji and told he can get room for cheap(Rs 350) per day near a beach. He also agreed to arrange bikes for us. He took us to a lodge near meeramar beach, which was OK~OK. He arranged two splendours too.
Got ready and left at around 11:30AM on splendour. It is splendour only for name sake... That was my first 100cc bike ride.
Our next srop was Aguada fort, where few scenes of DCH are shot. The road to Aguada is picturesque.
Aguada Fort ------>

Calangute beach: One of the unique beaches where water was showing its power and ferocity. Just two days later, we learnt few people were washed away by waves... Though the beaches of north Goa are not that clean.
Calangute beach ----->

Vagator Fort(Best part of the day): There is sunday market every week and sea shell items are very cheap on sundays. Beach is not that clean but less violent than at Calangute. There is a fort near the beach, which is extremely green. We went and sat at the cliff. None of us realized that we spent almost 1 hour there, each os us were lost in thoughts. That was a great moment. Given a chance I would sit there forever facing sea.
Backwater merging sea, Vagator---->

Vagator Fort ----->

We returned after a wonderful day in the paradise. Evening, went on a cruise on Santa Monica, which was just OK. Nothing great. They have a dance floor, and some Konkani folk dance on a big boat.

Monday, August 14:

We headed towards old Goa, where there are beautyful churches built by Portuguese during 16th century. Old Goa is a small town which is just like in fairy tales. Small curvy road passes through old Goa. There is a hill along the river Mondovi. These houses are built on the foothills, and the narrow(but well paved) road passes between these houses and the river. Oh I can't explain this in words. One has to be there to feel it. Since we were on bikes, we could stop at any place to enjoy it. On the other side of Mondovi river is the Diwar island, and one has to take a ferry at Ribandar to get there. More about Diwar island later...

One very important in these churches to notice is the architecture. The roofing of all churches is amazing.....

Bassilica of Bom Jesus ----->

body of St. Francis Xavier ---->

SE Cathedral, view from outside ---->

SE Cathedral, view from inside ---->

St Augustine Church ruins. This is where Gumnam song was shot ---->

St Cajetan's Church, From outside ---->

Inside view and roofing ---->

Our next destination was Shantadurga temple. Supposedly the richest temple in Goa. It is some 10km after old Goa towards Belgaum. Its a different story that we were caught by cops for not wearing helmet and bribed him to escape...
Shantadurga Temple ---->

On the way back, we visited Diwar Island. One needs to take a ferry to reach there. There are 4 ferry points from Ribandar to Diwar island. Ferry's are avaialble very frequently and it is free!!! I drove my bike into the ferry!!! man it is hell of an experience. The whole island is another fairy place. Both sides of the paved road are swamps and reminded me of Lord Of The Rings part 2!!!
It started to rain and we took shelter under a tree. Met some kannadiga people there and came to know that a bit further there is a bonda-bajji shop. There is no match to hot bonda/bhajji and rain combination... All houses in Diwar island are so beautyful, if god had granted me a single wish, I would have asked a big bunglow on that island!!! Since it was raining all the way, I could not click any photo there.
Diwar Island ---->

Tuesday, August 15: There ends our bike adventure. There was time till evening. We had to rely on public transportation. It was raining heavily. We haeded to Dona Paula(I think this was the only place left out). It is a posh residential locality on shoreline, where fierce waves slam on rocks as if punishing the rocks. They have constructed some view points. Occationally wave gets so angry that water sweeps over this view point drenching people before they realize and run for cover. It was kind of fun, when new comers lean forward to on the railings and waves drench them completely...
Dona Paula ---->

Since there was a lot of time left we decided to go back to our favourite place, the fairy old Goa. This time we got down at Ribandar and ventured into old Goa on foot. I just wanted walk there forever. I didn't even take photos there, I was lost in the fairy land.

Well, that is the end of a wonderful trip.
Return was very boring, two tyres of our bus got punctured at the same time. There was problem at the checkpost since it was an extra coach and so on. After about 20 hours reached namma Bangaluru.

Jogada GunDi

2006-07-29T22:47:00.000+05:30

Its been long pending. Better late than never.....

One fine day, in the 3rd week of July we decided to see Jog. It was all planned by Manju. My job was to buy tickets. Plan was to reserve one day for Jog and another to some other place(Sat & Sun). It was all dependent on ticket availability. We decided to spend one day in Sirsi. Since only onward tickets available to Sirsi, I booked return tickets from Shimoga.

on 21st, Friday night bus left Majestic at 9:15PM and reached Sirsi at around 8:00AM. This portion of Karnataka called MalenaDu, alaways amazed me. I always wanted to live in such places. Rain does not stop life here. People are just used to it, what can they do if it rains almost everyday during rainy season. We too did not care. We got drenched everytime it drizzled/rained. Within no time our clothes were dry. It is so amazing.

Anyway, coming back to reality, easily got hotel in Sirsi. It has got good hotels. After getting ready at around 11AM, we headed to Yallapur(Around 2 hours journey). It was raining heavily at Yellapur. We made a deal with a Maruti Omni driver to take us to MagoDu Falls, Jenu kallu guDDa and KavaDi kere. I had heard of Falls but had no idae of what the other places were. All that for Rs 550. The driver, Ravi, seemed to know everyone and every road in the area. He had amazing control over the car. magoDu falls is about 1 hour from Yallapur(20 km). A portion of the road is unpaved, but Maruti Omni's tyres rolled on bouldered road. Finally we reached a dead end, and I could hear roaring of water falls nearby, but could not see anything. It was dense fog around the trees.

We walked further and for few moments falls was visible. Suddenly fog raised from bottom. It was frequently drizzling too. It was tough to protect camera and still click some shots. It is just amazing, mud color water jumping from lush green background, with fog playing hide n seek. I could manage to click some good photos.

Our next stop was Jenukallu GuDDa. As I have already told, I didn't have a hint of what this place is. This is a view point which is just amazing. It brings memories of great river Amazon that we have seen on NGC or Discovery channels. It is a scaled down version of it. mud color water cutting across luch greenery, splitting and merging. I don't have words to explain this view. I just stood there watching the river lost somewhere. By the time I came back to reality, fog started to play its part and I could capture only this photo.

Next spot was kavaDi kere. It history dates back to Dwapara yuga. When pandava came here, Droupadi was thirsty and asked Bheema to get water. Bheema brought water from river Ganga and formed the lake here. Localites say that the lake never dried since then. Our driver, Ravi, also told nobody has ever challenged and conquered the perimeter of the lake.

With all this wonderful memories we headed back to Sirsi. Tried our chance to watch a movie(Manju wanted to watch Fanaa!!!), but they don't have a concept of second show in Sirsi!! Found out a place where we get bisi bisi bajjis. It started raining too. It is wonderful to eat hot bhajjis when it is raining....
Then visited maariKamba temple, it is a very big temple and quite famous too.

Day 2 :

From Sirsi one has to catch a bus to Sagar and get down at. Alternately reach Siddapur(frequent buses available) and from here there are many maxi cabs to Jog. I hadn't got a faintest idea of how Jog looks, except some pictures. River Sharavathi jumps from a height of ~950 feet to make this world famous Jog falls. There wasn't much water during that time.

We trekked down in less than 30 minutes. The sound was deafening there. It was too crowded there, so we decided to sit on a secluded rock. I almost lost my camera there.... a monkey opened the zip of the bag and threw everything out in search of food. My camera was just hanging on the rock by the strip. A slight touch was enough for it to fall into the water below. Oh boy, I was so lucky to get my camera in one piece.

Amazingly I could climb up within one hour. One good thing to see when water is less in Jog is the view from Raja point. There are few rocks just before sharavathi jumps, beyond which is the precipice. One canlie down on the rock and look down. Oh, this is an unfrgettable sight. I was imagining of falling into the ravine along with the rock!!! I tried to capture it in my camera, but it is no way near to what I saw...

Came to Sagar and visited a place called Hikkeri(About 3km from Sagar). There is very big temple of Shiva. As usual, enjoyed hot bhajji's once again in rain. Reached Shimoga in time to catch out bus to Bangalore...

So I put a tick mark on my list of "To see" things while humming Mugur Mallappa's "Manavanaagi huTTida mele enen kanDi..."

Power

2006-07-16T18:17:00.000+05:30

I just heard this on TV, "The only species that has POWER to save and protect all other species on the earth is Human.

My Autograph

2006-07-09T18:39:00.000+05:30

Hmm... Its been very long.
What prompted me to come back is the movie that I watched yesterday, My Autograph. It is a wonderful movie of a different kind. It has a very simple theme yet a complex storyline. Its just about retrospection of yesteryears, childhood, school, college days etc. Our hero is getting married and he wants to invite his childhood buddies and college friends to his marriage. Thats all is the theme of the movie. My god, we human beings are so complex. Our complexities are beyond comprehension.

The movie makes eveybody to think, at least it does so to sane people. The thought that the movie brought to my mind is still spinning in my head. I too tried(I am using 'tried' intentionally) to remember my childhood days. I lived in 5-6 different places with different people(with parents away from parents) during my school days. I don't remember any of it. How I spent my childhood? My god, what a mistery in my life. I don't have memory of most precious part of my life. May be it is a blessing, so that I don't remember all that awful things that happened during my childhood... or may be not.

Anyway, the movie brought a lot of disturbance to my otherwise yet another weekend. That is why we are complex. Our emotions, reactions to many situation... oh all of it is so different.

Still my head is very heavy as I am writing this. Hope this lasts soon. It often happens to me after watching any movie. Hopefully Monday blues will help me get over this....

Kodachadri Trek

2006-01-08T21:24:00.000+05:30

It's been a quite while since I blogged. Lot of things have happened since then. Lemme put those I remember.

One fine weekend(Oct 8 2005) we planned to conquer Kodachadri.

Approach : Reach Kollur. There are two routes(Via Mangalore and via Shimoga). Prefer Mangalore route since the road is better. From here catch a bus towards Sagar and get down at Kaari gate(nowadays it is also known as Kodachadri gate), and start walking along the obvious muddy path.

Our bus reached Kollur at 7:00AM sharp. From here we reached Kodachadri gate at 9:15AM. From here the muddy path was very easy to cover amidst the mystic silince of the forest. In fact the silence was a bit scary at times. There is a kaka hotel at the foothills. We get "puttu" and idli here. Just eat as there is no other option. I should admit it was tasty.

From kaka hotel, it is just non-stop trekking uphill, thanks to ravenous leaches. Slow down a moment and there will be a pack of leeches climbing shoes in search of exposed skin to feast on our blood. However there are clearings where we can take some rest(leeches can not live here as there is not much humidity in clearings).

We reached Kodachadri at around 2:30PM. Here is Adi Mookambika temple. The place where
mookambike killed Mookasura. There are some houses here where we can stay. They charge some Rs.25 per night. They also provide a mat and a blanket. No need to carry all that stuff.One advice here : Ask for Bhatta's house. There are many outsiders who are in the same business of giving shelters to pilgrims and trekkers. They give very bad food.

After taking bath and having "bad food" we went to the top of hill, which takes about 30min to reach. From here we can see Kollur on the west and Lingamanakki reservoir(Sharavathi river - Jog falls) on the east and thick forest everywhere. Sunset was picturesque. They say one can see glimpse of Arabian see from here. We were not that fortunate.

Morning we woke up early to see sunrise. We climbed the other hill(somehow reached top in darkness). On the way there were lot of bisons. They were agitated to see us and were breaking trees in the forest. It was really scary. Had they(bisons) charged we had nowhere to run. Sun rose amidst clouds. It was not great except for the cold wind that was trying to blow of our blankets.

We headed back to our bus stop after coffee at Bhatta's house. We reached kaka angadi at around 10:30AM. Trekking downhill was very quick.

On the way back there was a resort kind of stuff called eco village. It was owned by ISKCON. A worker there told many ISKCON devotees come here and they visit kodachadri and "arishina gundi falls". This falls thing was a lot interesting because I had read about it before. The guy told it was just an hour walk in the jungle. Another hour walk will take us to Kollur. It sounded OK to us. We hired a guide to take us to the Arishina Gundi Falls.

It is the journey unforgettable in my life. For the first time I wanted to die. One hour walk seemed to be a never ending walk through forest, earth was covered with dead leaves where live millions of voracious leeches. I just walked with all my energy. I could not do anything but see leeches crawling on my shoes and tens of them had already started feasting on my blood. I wished I should rather die than being a prey to these blood-thirsty leeches.

Finally reached waterfalls(one has to climb down a lot to reach falls). It appeared that, there was no sign of a human being visited this place in recent past. I got rid of all my fatigue once inside water. The place was worth the effort. It was a picturesque place. I wanted to spend rest of my life here. Because just after the rocks(near water falls) are the predators waiting for me.

The way back to Kollur was better because we were walking on a jeep trail. Finally when we reached main road, it was written on the board "Kodachadri trekking trail - 8 kms". The one hour walk turned out to be 8km trek, some portion of it was through think jungle with so sign of a trail.

Rest of the things went smoothly. Someshwara beach was soothing. The journey back to Bangalore would have been another adventure thanks to timely coordination of KSRTC staff.

Gone are the days...

2005-11-13T22:24:00.000+05:30

When I was cleaning my room, I found these photos. It reminded me of my college trip to Shivana Samudra and TalakaDu, in fact my first trip with friends(don't laugh). Gone are the days when we had no worries, no responsibilities. I used to enjoy those long bus rides and traffic jams.....

All of us friends used to meet everyday, even on weekends during our project days. Only thing we didn't have was money(At least I didn't).

Now what has happened to us? Everybody is busy in their own problems, projects.... I never imagined our future was going to be like this....

Yet another comback!!

2005-10-04T07:58:00.000+05:30

Hmm.. What a coincidence!?!? I am back exactly after a month...

There was nothing great happening in the past month except that I had been to Sri's home last week. Had a good time and watched two movies.

Yesterday I got a mail saying I have been selected to do MS from IIT Chicago, of course sponsored by my company. Don't know if I can succeed in this. Anyway exactly after 4 years of separation from studies, exams, I feel it is good. Let me see how far it goes....

Yet another week(end)

2005-09-04T20:05:00.000+05:30

Yet another week passed. There was nothing great in this week. Couldn't meet any friends. No movies, No blogs, There was no blogs from others too. Dunno what they are busy with.
I did a little modification to my blog looks, and I know I have fine tune it still.

Hope the coming week will be interesting!!! All the best for me.

Team Building Outbound to Golden Palms

2005-08-28T17:40:00.000+05:30

It had been long pending, our team building outbound, because of various reasons. Finally it materialized on Wednesday, 24th Aug 2005.

The place is Golden Palms Spa and Resort. It is very huge and well maintained resort. The cost is equally high. Totally it was full of joy, our chance to rag new comers to the team. We played some HR kind of games and cricket, squash, carrom, TT.

I tried some close-up shots of flowers and photos came really nice.

We are first to finish this pyramid

A Group Photo!!!!

Bee has just come of the flower!!!!

I liked this walkway very much!!!

Varamahalakshmi @ Home

2005-08-28T17:29:00.000+05:30

This is the photo of Varamahalakshmi @ my home last week.

Long(Quick) Weekend

2005-08-19T23:44:00.000+05:30

Last week was very quick. So was the weekend. It was long weekend for names sake, though we had 3 days holiday. I spent all Saturday and Sunday browsing at home. Monday Sridhar and I went to watch Mangal Pandey. Yet another time fate proved it. We can't watch a movie so easily. For second time we came back without watching a movie.

We didn't get tickets at Urvashi, next show at Swagat was at 3:15. So thought of going to Lal bagh flower show. For our unfortunate fate, about a lakh people visited flower show on that day. It took about 15 minutes for us to reach Lal bagh main gate from Urvashi on bike(We could have walked twice up and down), then decided to buy some DVDs.

At least we could do that. Bought a couple of DVDs. As usual I didn't watch any of them. They are lying on my rack now. I hope to watch them this weekend.

Quandaries at social gatherings

2005-08-19T22:50:00.000+05:30

I hate social gatherings. I avoid such gatherings as much as possible, because I can not stand the questions and opinions people have about software engineers.
Whenever my grandfather and uncle get chance, they keep bragging about me to everybody. I can't stop them, because I think it makes them happy. But people who listen to such boasts can't buy in all these boasts. They seem to take vengeance on me when I happen to be a victim to be present at such gatherings.

First question I get is, "yaava company, EshTu koDtaare? nim thatha tumba hogaLta idru" (Which company, How much do they pay? Your grandpa was bragging about you). Their tone will be in such a way that I have committed a terrible sin and I should be punished.

Some people even try to predict future if software engineers, they say this boom will not lost, it ca not sustain for more than 2-3 years, china will overtake .... bla bla bla

I wonder what is my mistake for all these. I guess it is the case with most of us. Don't know when our elders understand not to be like this with us.

Broadband

2005-08-12T23:52:00.000+05:30

Hmm.... it is quite some time since I came back. Let me post something...

Well I got broadband connection last week from BSNL. It seems OK. Decent speed but download limit:(

There are many reasons for me to get broadband connection....

Internet access is limited in my company. Blogs sites are blocked too.
There was a time when e-mail was Hi-Fi way of communication. Now it has become outdated, almost everyone has blog. People are too lazy to e-mail now. Some say "go and check my blog"....
All these weekends I sit at home watching TV. I thought I would do something different if I had internet. Something useful of course!!!

All these and many more reasons compelled me to get internet. Also since broadband is affordable I went for it.
I hope I will be regular blogger and I can keep up-to-date with my friends too....

There are many things I have to do this weekend. Choosing a proper template to my blog, blog tools, uploading lot of pics and so on.... Good time pass for long weekend.

Finally I am back!!!

2005-07-27T10:39:00.000+05:30

I am finally back!!! Blog site was blocked in our office and I don't have internet at home. Oh, how shameless to say I don't have internet access!!! Nowadays, life without internet is like living in stoneage.

Well so many things have, happened in the past 2 months(Since I stopped blogging).... Lemme recollect some...

My site purchase dream was shattered when governament stopped all land registrations :-(
Kiran's marriage, meeting Kar and family...
Lot of work in project
War of the Worlds in PVR(we got tickets at the nick of time....)
Missing trip to Murdeshwar
Finished Harry Potter and the Half blood prince, and its hangover for a couple of days....
Finally applied for VISA!!!

Now, I hope to have returned to normal state. I hope I will continue to blog regularly!!!

Trek to BallaLa rayana Durga

2005-06-06T14:13:00.000+05:30

It was thursday, during tea Saravana asked me if I was free that weekend. I told yes. I didn't even ask where we are going and what we are going to do. As usual I came to office on Friday. Then he told me Manju(my ex-colleague) was in his native(Chikka Magalur) and was planning to go for a trekking near kaLasa. Manju was supposed to call and confirm about the plan. He did not call until afternoon. He was not reachable on cell too....

Finally Manju called at around 3:00PM and confirmed that he is coming to kaLasa that night we were supposed to meet him by Saturday early morning. We booked tickets at 4:30PM. It was a semi deluxe bus leaving Bangalore at 9:00PM. The journey is about 8 hours and semi deluxe is horrible for night travel. There was no leg space at all. I hardly slept.

Day 1:

We reached kaLasa at 5:00AM and Manju was having sound sleep in Thotadur yatri nivas. None of us knew what are we going to do. We had take print out of 3 blogs. We decided to follow this:
http://blog.sun.com/roller/page/saurabh_mishra/20040930

We got freshed up and started at around 6:30AM. Bought some bakery items and water. Our starting place is Sunkasaale, some 20 km from kaLasa. There was a bus(to Mysore) which goes via Sunkasaale. The journey was about 50min. and the driver was effortlessly steering the bus on the road full of curves and numerous 180 deg. turns.

There are 2 hotels in Sunkasaale, one can hardly eat anything there. We had idly and sambar(no chutney). Some localites showed us the way to BallaLa rayana durga. It was a road for sometime and becomes Jeep trail after some 2km. We kept on asking people if we were on correct route. On the way we met one Arun(or may be Anil) who happened to have come in the same 9:00PM bus. His home was on the way to our destination. So he took us through a shortcut. It was quite steep trail. We reached his place at around 9:45AM. He also offered us to serve lunch when we come back. From here it was about 1 hour trek to reach the peak where BallaLa raya has built a fort. It was 10:00AM when we left Arun's home. Arun told us to watch out for a clearing where we can see the panoramic view of South Canara and after this view point we were supposed to take a right trail which goes up hill. We found the view point and took some nice pictures. We also got the trail which was going up hill. We didn't take it because it looked very infrequently used.

We followed the same Jeep trail for long and it started going down hill. Manju told it is normal that mountain trails generally go up and down, so we were on right track. Finally we crossed the moutain where the fort was located and still our trail was going down. We reached an estate called "Hori khan estate". We had walked about 3km extra and had descended a lot. There we met a man called Lokappa Gowda, who offered to accompany us to the fort. According to him, lot of people miss the way and he had guided thousands of people to the fort!!! He claims his name has been featured in magazines like Sudha(Kannada weekly). This trail was quite steep full of leeches. I saw leeches for the first time and they deadly. They hunt you if you keep your foot down for a second. Reached the fort at around 12:00PM. The view was ultimate. Top of the mountain looks like golf course. It was luch green fields all around the top and dense forest below. I forgot all my tiredness. There were clouds all around the peak much below us. I wanted to touch one and feel it. We sat at a croner in the peak where a panoramic view of western ghats was msemerizing. Wind started blowing towards us which brought a huge cloud towards us. It was a unique experience when the cloud swept us, I felt cold mist, make everything blur and suddenly it was clear. I don't have words to explain the feeling. One should feel it. I am feeling as it I am flying even when writing this blog!!!

We spent enough time roaming in and around the forest. At 2PM we started back, when a huge cloud was swept towards us. We could hardly see each other. We followed the direction shown by Lokappa gowda and were confident about it. After sometime we realized we are going away from our destination. There were cattle grazing, so thought somebody would be there. But to our bad luck there no human being who heard our shouting. We were able to see the trail at the bottom of the valley, but how to get there. Decided to climb down directly though the forest. After few minutes of descending steep landscape(it was very loose and no grip), we came to a point beyond which it looked to be vertically down. I had to struggle to pull myself up from there to a safer place. Amazing thing is, I was never scared. A stone came sliding from top and hit at my back, that was knocked by Saravana when he slipped. Anyway, it did not hurt me. We left water bottle, bread and some banana there, since it was tough to climb with something in hand. Finally we pulled ourselves up to safer place and decided we will follow the same way, which we came from. But we had walked enough till this place, if we go back to the fort, it would take a lot of time. It was already 3PM. We were supposed to be at Arun's place having lunch at this time!! We saw the house from where Lokappa Gowda had taken us to the fort. We started walking towards the house along the mountain clearing. There came a dead end yet again. We were very close to the house, so we shouted for help. People came out and shouted us to find a way towards our right. There was an obvious trail, which led us to the original trail which we had followed to climb up. We reached hori khan estate at around 3:45PM. From here to Arun's house we followed the same Jeep trail through which we had come in the morning. We were hungry too. Reached Arun's home at around 4:20PM. The lunch was so tasty. I ate twice the amount I usually eat. Buttermilk was so good(with green chilly and ginger), I asked them if I can have some more. They prepared again and served!!! From here the trek down was heavy on knees, but we had to reach Sunkasaale before 6:30PM. After 6:30 next bus was at 7:30PM and it was not regular. We covered this distance quite quickly and were at Sunkasaale at 6:15PM. Had coffee in a hotel. That was my first coffee of the day.

We reached kaLasa at 8:00PM. Took bath and went out for dinner. Most of the hotels were closed. There was a fast food center open. Fried rice was OK. At around 10:30PM we went to bed. I had kept alarm at 5:30AM, so plan was to leave early and walk along the river belt(Bhadra river).

Day 2:

I involuntarily switched off the alarm. It was 8:00 when we woke up. Got ready quickly and checked out at 9:00AM. There was a place called Amba theertha, which was some 5km from kaLasa. It was easy walk and we reached the place at around 10:15. There was not much water in the river but people warned us not to venture into the water as the pull was very strong. Took nice snaps. Decided to go back and leave to Bangalore.

We estimated 10 hour journey because there was not direct bus available till night. Came back to kaLasa at around 11:30AM. People suggested us to take a bus to Kottigehara, from there to Hasan and to Bangalore. Private bus to Kottigehara was boring and slow. Reached kottigehara at around 1:20 and came to know that there was no bus to Hasan at that time. We were suggested to take a bus to Mudigere(which was leaving in 5min!!!). Manju got direct bus to Chikamagalur. Luckily we got a bus to Hasan from Mudigere at 2:45. Reached Hasan at 4:30PM. After having lunch, Rajahamsa was waiting for us. Reached Bangalore at 9:15PM.

It was totally enjoying trip and I will trasure the memories forever. We also have plan to camp on the top of the hill sometime. Hoe we do it sometime.

Details:

There are three buses to KaLasa dialy. Semi deluxe at 9:00PM and two Rajahamsa's at 10:15 and 10:25PM. Journey is about 8hour with a lot of breaks. Prefer Rajahamsa to have good sleep.

KaLasa has a couple of good lodges. Price is also reasonable. We paid Rs.191(including tax!!) for 3 people.

It is good to pack food from kaLasa as Sunkasaale is a small village and hotels are not good.

Total cost of the trip is about Rs.550

Finally Report on my Trip

2005-05-03T19:07:00.000+05:30

As I had told in my previous post, now I found some time to post about the trip.

As the weekend was getting nearer I was excited about the trip. I totally forgot why am I going to Trissur. All I was thinking was, Athirampalli and vazhachal waterfalls. Sudin's marriage seemed to be an optional-on-the-way event. Also I was excited to go to my manager's(madam) farm house.

We did not get train as usual. KSRTC buses were available but all were leaving Bangalore in late evening and would reach Trissur very early morning. So we booked Kallada travels which was scheduled to leave at 9:30PM. I reached Madivala at 9:00PM itself. The bus came little late and finally at around 10:15PM I was in bus. It was OK-OK kind of bus. But somehow I was missing a seat belt. I was scared, I would be knocked off the seat. I was little unconfortable all along, but still managed to get some good sleep.

We reached Trissur some 2 hour late because the driver had lost way somewhere in Tamil Nadu. Sudin had already taken care of hotel room booking. It was a very good hotel, thanks to Sudin(Poornima in fact). After taking bath we got ready quickly and rented a Qualis and left to madam's house in Valapad. Driver was quite familiar with roads and took us through beautyful yet narrow roads of Trissur. We were mesmerized by the beautyful houses all along the road. Most of them were newly constructed and each one looked better than the other. Some of them were palaces. I think lot of people have returned from Gulf and constructing these beautiful homes.

We reached Athirampally, after lunch on the way, at around 2:30PM. Waterfall was awesome. I wanted to go to the bottom and sit under the fall. But no one was allowed there. After taking some cool snaps we went to Vazhachal. Here water flows on slopy rock. Here too no one was allowed to go near water. Took some cool snaps and had nice sandwitches prepared by madam's mom. Took some nice snaps. Weather was dramatically changed and became cloudy. It started thunders and lightning. We went back to Athirampally, where there is a place to go near water before the fall. I was not satisfied even after taking so many photos of the same scene. I did not want to miss even an inch of the picturesque scene. But anyway I am not a proffessional. Lightning and thunders were getting more vigorous. It started raining too. We rushed back to our vehicle. There was a thunder, so loud, I hadn't heard louder than that. The thunder was accompanied by immediate flash of light. So I thought it must have struck somewhere very much close. Next day I came to know that, 4 people died because of lightning in Palakkad dist. That was worse.

Then went to madam's house and had a nice dinner. Back at the hotel, I don't remember when I slept. It was morning again. It was Sudin's marriage, the main reason why we went to Trissur. Got ready and had breakfast. There was a shuttle waiting for us, thanks to Sudin. Went to marriage hall. Kerala marriages are very instantaneous. It just happened in a matter of minutes. Lunch was really nice. That's it the Kerala trip was over. Checked out from the Hotel, caught a bus to Coimbatore, from where we had booked our return bus. Also it is home town of Saravana.

Reached Coimbatore at around 5:00PM. Met Saravana's mother and father. Visited some nearby book shop and bought a couple of novels. Dinner was really nice. Saravana's mother is a great cook. Rajahamsa was waiting for us at 9:00PM. I was awaken by the very slow moving bus in lower gear. The bus was crawling on the road passing thorough hairpin bends climbing the mountain. I think it is called madumalai forest. After that I don't know when we crossed Mysore. I can sleep in the crowded, noisy BMTC bus and how can I not sleep in Rajahamsa. So that is the end of this one more un-forgettable trip.

Photos are really great, but I can't post them as all photo hosting sites are blocked in office. Someday when I get internet connection at home or from Sri's home I will try to put some photos. It was little costly for a two day trip, but I feel it was worth.

Kerala Trip II

2005-04-22T14:34:00.000+05:30

I am little excited today because tonight we(Saravana and I) are leaving to Trissur to roam around and on the way we are attending Sudin's marriage!!!! In fact it is other way.
OK, whatever it is, I wanted to go somewhere away from work. But I somehow got this cold this morning. It can't stop me from going.

We have been invited to our madam's(my PM in office) house in Valapad. We have planned to see Athirapalli and Vazhachal waterfalls.
Watch out for great Kerala photos and details about the trip...

Chetu's Party

2005-04-16T11:57:00.000+05:30

I think yesterday was the most boring day in my life. In fact I did not want to come to office. Somehow I dragged myself to office. India's first innings disaster, further ruined my mood. Meanwhile I got a mail from Chetu, that he had arranged a small dinner get together that night. It was in Woody's.

I thought all of our gang would come. Sri had his exams on Sat and Sun. Kiri and Mahendra live in different part of world. Kar is busy in distributing his wedding invitation(Though he came to the place and left before dinner). So I was the only one left out without any special engagement. I was worried that I will be an odd man in the crowd.

Manju Kiran was there with his wife(forgot the name). Chetu's MS frined Muralidhar(incidentally our junior from UVCE) was there. So I got company of Murali. He had just resigned MS to write UPSC exam. My most of discussion was about UPSC exam. Then Avinash, our ECE batch mate, Chetu's friend joined the group. We had seen each other, but didn't know well. Murali, Avinash and I started chatting during dinner. We discussed everything about our work, where we live and so on. Incidentally Avinash's home was on the other side of the road from my home!!!!

Chetan's father was sitting next to Avinash, he told us the stories about Chetu's bride hunting. It was total fun. We also recommended to get Chetu married soon. So by this year end Chetu will be definitely married. Congrats Chetu!!! His father also told us that some girl is coming to bangalore to see Chetu, the next day. Chetu all the best!!!

At the end, we met Suraj and Vibha(I think it was just a coincidence). So it was all fun meeting old friends and making new ones. It was around 10pm. I had to go to railway station to pick my uncle. I enjoyed the drive to railway station with traffic/crowdless roads with no signal intersections. Hopefully Chetu will upload all photos someday.

Bon voyage Chetu!!!

Historic Meet

2005-04-11T14:21:00.000+05:30

Finally it was the day when all of us were meeting. It was 3rd April 2005. Incidentally it was Kiri's b'day too. None of us remembered except Kar. It was the day when all 6 of us, Engineering project team, were going to meet after 3 and a half years. Oh.... sorry it was 7 in fact. Things change a lot in years. There was a new person, Kar's fiancee, Sowmya.

All 6 had never met after college days. Sri and I usually meet regularly. Kar and Kir, I might have met them 2-3 times. I had met Chetan in US!!! Mahendran was almost an alien. I had spoken to him once.

Lot of things have happened is these many years. First of all Kar is getting married. None of us(at least I) had expected Kar will be the first. We all knew it would be Chetu. Anyway, Kar is getting married to Sowmya on May 11th.
Next is, Kiri also followed Kar. He got engaged to Latha yesterday. This too came as a surprise.
There are more things like, Chetan got relocation to US. He is leaving this weekend. Mahendran is finally back to Bangalore. He got an offer from Wipro.
Well, there is a news about Sri, too. But he will only reveal it.

We had all been to Sunny Holiday Village for dinner. We played a game called "Mafia" which was suggested by Chetu. I never got a chance to be mafia. I still don't know whom would I have killed if I was a mafia!!!
That place was so crowded that we had to wait even for bill. We did not give any tips.

Donno when others follow Kiri and Kar. All the best to everybody.

Case of Mondays again!!!

2005-04-11T14:13:00.000+05:30

Well, it is monday after all. The most boring day of the week. I had cribbed about it sometime back too. But that was in Phoenix. Now this time in Bangalore.
I have never felt like this before. I have zero interest in work today. Downloaded some 700MB of stuff from nvidia website. Some development kit and demo and all....

Nothing is coming into my mind. I am not sure what I want to do. Probably go to Sri's home and get harry Potter books. That was what I was doing in Phoenix and I used to feel very good after that. Probably that should cheer me up.
There is nobody to ask me what I am doing. Nobody tells me what to do also. I know a day will come when my manager asks me what I did during whole 6 months.

Probably I should think of all the good things that happened during last weeks, rather I should write. Check out the next blog....

Some Facts about Kannada

2005-04-05T11:06:00.000+05:30

Well, I am writing this in English. I don't have Baraha at this time, to write in Kannada.

1] Kannada is the third oldest language of India.( After . . Sanskrit & Tamil )
2] kannada is as old as 2000 years.
3]Kannada is 99.99% perfect - logically and scientifically.
4] We got 7 Gnana peetha awards. Look at other languages . . .
Hindi -- 6, Thelugu - 2, Malayalam - 3, Tamil -- 2 ( Second one during 2005 )
5]Shri VINOBA BHAVE has called kannada script as QUEEN OF WORLD SCRIPTS - " Vishwa lipigaLa RaaNi - kannada "
6] So called international language -- English do not have its own Script. English is written in " ROMAN "
7] So called national Language -- hindi do not have its own script.
Hindi is written in
" Deva nagari "
8] Though Tamil has a script, logically it is imperfect -- as common letters are used for many pronunciations.
KANNADA IS AS OLD AS 2000 YEARS, YOU CAN WRITE WHAT YOU SPEAK, YOU CAN READ WHAT YOU WRITE.
9] When " kaviraja maarga was written . . ." kaaveriyimda , gOdaavarivaregirpa ... " by Amogha varsha nripathumga, English was in cradle & hindi was not born at all.
SO . . .LET US HAVE PRIDE IN USING KANNADA "

My long trip

2005-03-28T14:54:00.000+05:30

Well, after my Petrified forest trip was petrified by rain, I could not go anywhere after that. This Good friday weekend was coming. It is good that Good Friday comes always on Friday, so it is always a long weekend. From two weeks I was thinking where to go and what to do. All other family guys are had already planned to goto Page and Zion.

I don't think there was any place left around Phoenix that I have not seen. Well I had enough GAS in my car. So I thought of going on a loo..ong drive. I wanted MS Streets and Trips, 'coz it is a very good trip planner. I was planning on a solo drive to 4 corners. It is the place where 4 states(Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico) meet. I thought of using MSN maps instead, it also gives enought detailed information and it is free!! I was all set to go.
Monday night when I was just browsing, I got a mail, from my uncle, saying that my mother was not feeling well and she had been admitted to hospital. Tuesday I asked my managers for permission to go back to India. My tickets for Friday were confirmed on wednesday. So I was on my way back to India on Friday.

I wanted to drive like mad during the weekend, and in fact I was flying like mad. After a very long journey, now I am in Bangalore. My mother felt good, since I came back. She will undergo surgery on this wednesday. Hope everything goes well.

2005-03-08T03:19:00.000+05:30

A Green Patch, This is all greenery I see around Phoenix

2005-03-08T02:54:00.000+05:30

Calcite Formation

2005-03-08T02:53:00.000+05:30

One more Silver Lining

2005-03-08T02:52:00.000+05:30

A Yellow Flower

2005-03-08T02:51:00.000+05:30

Blue Flower

2005-03-08T02:32:00.000+05:30

Silver Lining

Weekend Trip

2005-03-07T23:16:00.000+05:30

It was high time that I had to go out somewhere this weekend. I had spent 7 weekends sitting at home doing nothing. So we(Dinesh and I) decided to goto Petrified Forest and Paited desert. It is about 4-5 hours of drive from our place. As the name indicates, it is a national park with a natural collection of millions of years old fossil and petrified wood. Friday was the day I was waiting for and at last, it was Friday. I made a word document of all the places to see and what to do there(Sri and I had done such a word document before we went to Kerala trip). I took printouts of all driving directions. Went home at 5PM(little early for me). We had decided the menu. I was supposed to cook bisi bele bath(I am supposed to be very good at it).

Friday evening when we went to play volley ball(we play every evening), it was too windy, so we came back soon. I checked weather and to our bad luck, there was 50% chances of rain in whole of Arizona. It was 8:30PM and I called Dinesh to enquire. He too was concerned and only place where we could still go in rain was Tucson. Which has a Bio Sphere 2, Pima air and space museum and huge caves. We decided to leave at around 8:30 in the morning. It was just about 2 hours drive from our home.

Saturday, I got a phone call at 7:15AM which broke my dream. Till now I don't remember what was I dreaming. I guess it was pleasant. So I woke up, and it was Deepa(Dinesh's wife). She had called to invite me for breakfast. She asked me if bisi bele bath was over. For a moment I thought, said vegetables and rice+dal are cooked I have to mix them. It was a plain lie. Got up quickly, did daily routines and started cooking bisi bele bath. To my bad luck I didn't even have pressed clothes. So all in all, I was ready by 9:00AM.

We finished breakfast and set off at 9:30. According to microsoft Streets and Trips, we were supposed to finish our trip at 4:30PM. We were 30 min. behind schedule. There was no confusion in roads, thanks to MS Streets and Trips. The route which we took was better than I-10. We reached Bio Sphere 2 at around 12:30PM. It is called BioSphere 2, because the place we live on, earth, is Bio Sphere 1!! It was created to experiment artifical habitats. The plan was to create a similar living environment on moon. Later it was scraped, bla bla bla.
Entry fee was $19.99. Oh my god, for a stupid 1 hour tour, it was more than my half of my per diem. We had already watched artificial habitats in movies. It had rain forests, desert, marine life and so on.

">
We decided to go to our next destination, Kartchner Caverns national park, which has world famous caves. I drove and drove in the busy town of Tucson. There was no sign of freeway for half an hour. Already all of us were feeling hungry. We did not get any place to stop and eat. Finally we got freeway(I-10). Our next destination was about 30 miles furhter east. We did not get any roadside bench, where we could have lunch. Dinesh was suggesting Colosal Caves, which was on the way, thanks to MS Streets and Trips. We decided to take some exit, park somewhere and eat our lunch. I took the next exit, and to our luck it was the exit to Colosal caves. There was a picnic area where we finished our lunch, food was excellent. Went to see Colosal Cave. It was about 1 hour guided tour. Took some nice pictures. By this time it was 3:45PM.

Then we started towards our original destination, Kartchner Caverns. Reached wihtout confusion. The guard near the gate came out and asked "What can I do for you?". I was speechless for a moment. Then I fumbled, "we want to see the cave." Then we were informed that last tour was over at 4:15 and there were no more tours that day. So we took a U turn. We decided to head straight to home, since the museum would also be closed by the time we reach there. Dinesh took over stearing from me. I took out me camera and started shooting. Took some nice pictures. It rained heavily on the way back. It was hard to see lane markings. Reached home safe at around 7:30.

All in all, we did not see anything that we had planned for. But still it was a good refreshing weekend trip!!

Object Oriented....

2005-03-03T02:44:00.000+05:30

Everyday, during lunch we(Dinesh, Paraddi, Vivek and I) discuss anything and everything. Yesterdays main topic was "Everything is object oriented".

God created a skeleton class and made all interfaces, virtual functions. So all human beings are objects of same base class. When a child is born, god creates a derived class and defines some of the functions and leaves some to be defined. When we grow we define all our virtual functions, such as our attitude, likes, dislikes and so on.

Some people are so dumb decause, I think god was feeling sleepy when he wrote their learning, common sense and functions like that. It would have been good if those functions were pure virtual, so that he/she is forced to define it. Since it is already defined by god, such people think, they are gifted and they know everything in the world.

Love at First Sight!!!

2005-03-01T03:12:00.000+05:30

People go crazy in February. There are 2 reasons for this, I think of. One is my birthday and other, Valentines day.
I don't understand why such a hype is given for Valentines day in India. I did not see anybody talking about Valentines day in US(at least in Phoenix!!). Well, whatever it is, Valentines Day was the theme of our magazine, Xpressions. Many people were asked what they think of
"Love at First sight"

In my opinion, there is nothing like love at first sight. Or at least there is a different meaning for this. Whenever I see somebody attractive(of course of opposite sex), something happens to me. I guess it is infatuation. After that moment(sometimes "moment" may be longer), I forget it. It has happened to me a hundreds of time. I am sure, I will have the same feeling when I really meet my true love. Then where is "Love" and when was the "First sight". I bet it is the case with everyone.
It may be true that, ones love, for his/her true lover, sprouts at first sight, but not the other way.

So, in my view, it is just a statement made to convince/console ourself.

Case of Mondays!!!

2005-03-01T02:38:00.000+05:30

Hmm,

It is monday, the most boring day of the week. Some how I feel it is longest of the days. I am already feeling sleepy in office.
There was a big discussion on future, life, career bla bla bla with my room mate yesterday night. Though I wasn't interested, somehow I was pulled in. I have been through such brainstorming sessions alone, enough times. I know the outcome of such things is a big zero OR more confusion. So I always say, "Life is simple, Live it."
It's a different story that some bugger called at 1'o clock in the night and did not answer. I hardly slept for 5 hours yesterday and it is Monday today. I hate mondays....

Yet another first blog!!!

2005-02-13T23:24:00.000+05:30

Hi,

I am Shashidhara, most call me Shashi, created this blog account today, after getting inspired by my friends Kar and Sri.
This is actually my second blog account. First one I have forgotten username!!!
That tells how I am. I am very lazy fellow to do anything new. Once I like it, I will definitely not stop. Hopefully, this will continue....

My Birthday

2005-02-13T22:31:00.000+05:30

It was my birthday yesterday, Feb 12. We had a potluck in Dinesh's apartment. Paraddi and family, Vivek and family and of course Dinesh's family were there. For second time in my life I cut cake. First time was also in Phoenix only, this was second time.
I completed quarter century. Oh man I am growing old :(( :((
You know what, I share my birthday with Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin!!!!!