Alive, in memories

Had sneaked this Indian Mongrel 14 years back into our home where we had strict "No Pets" policy. All policies were broken in few days as he carved a niche for himself in the house. Was supposed to be a guard dog, but ended up being treated like a kid. Adapted well in the house and became a member of the family. Playful as a kid, dominating and attacking during his prime time, and very matured towards the end. Too many pleasant memories to pen down. Anyway he left his last breath on October 30, at a time when nobody was there at home. Had shown signs of sickness that morning, and died before afternoon.It does feel difficult to recover from the loss, but they say time is powerful. Life moves on. The sweet memories will linger for lifetime.

The Greener Past

[caption id="attachment_359" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="http://i.imgur.com/qWy2u.jpg"][/caption]

 

Stood there at the terrace feeling the cool and gentle breeze from the east. It felt like a child's light kiss. Saw a few cranes, and a peacock searching the fields for food.  Delighted, i stood watching the vast expanse of land in front of me. I wished it would remain like that forever. And i knew i would not get a single soul in that area who would similar feelings.

Anyway, quickly traveled back in time and the old memories emerged from the rusted mind. We had shifted to our home from the every crowded, ever friendly colony life. Our home looked remote and desolate, and i quickly decided that the area is lifeless. Soon i was proved wrong.  The first rainy season was special. When it rained, the area was became a scenic spot. To us it was like Venice. When we get out, it is just water everywhere. Usually the canals breach their boundaries, and it becomes difficult to differentiate the lake nearby and the area. As usual man made boundaries, wiped off by nature's fury. To others houses floating in water looked funny, to me it was fun. For i got to watch snakes for the first time & crabs too. Anytime i was able to see around 10 snakes in water. Snakes of different colors, different textures. Remember the time, when i ventured into water and a snake slithered in between my legs.  Lost in childish enthusiasm, killed a lot when they ventured to land. Should be more than 25 i think. The only snake i have hit and left without killing is a Cobra :-) As myths have it, Cobra's dont forget their offenders and take revenged and kill them. Anyway, I am Still waiting!!!! FYI, i stopped killing snakes after that. Once i saw Cobra mating with another snake in real. Early in the morning, when i am starting to school, would see Mongoose leisurely crossing the street. Everytime i wished, i would see it fighting with a Cobra, but it never happened.

As water drained, different varieties of birds & cranes used to visit the place. Few looked like they had migrated from nearby places. When it becomes dry, we get a flock of peacocks as visitors. Around 10 or 11, used to visit the fields nearby. It was here i was first introduced to Quails (Kaadai) and Grey Francolins (Gowthari). Nomads, occupy the area around the lake with their ducks and we used to visit them at times to get Duck's egg, Cucumber, Brinjal which they grow.

Once as usual was aimlessly watching the fields nearby from the terrace, suddenly saw three dogs in a line running hard with their tongues out. Soon found a wild rabbit at the front. It was mesmerizing to see the rabbit's effortless jumps and the agility. Had the effect of watching Nat Geo in real. After a while, they dogs came back disappointed. At times saw rabbits searching for food and hopping away, when i walk aimlessly through the fields. What i missed that time was a digital camera.

I was lost in those thoughts when sound of the bulldozer brought me back to reality. The land was being cleared and will eventually give way to some apartment or bungalow. The rabbits are no more, the peacocks have reduced, so are cranes, Kaadai and Gowtharis, snakes i haven't seen for a long time and crabs are extinct i guess. What was once a home to snakes, crabs, peacocks, country birds & Rabbits is now an opportunity to make Lakhs & Crores.  What if a 4th grade guy shifts to a house in this area now ? What will he do ? Will he lose himself in man made toys and the virtual video games? Will he miss something ? What made man constraint himself to a walled prison and feel proud about it ? With few random crazy thoughts, i watched the bulldozer returning from work. Atlast, the area was slowly turning lifeless!!!!

De-Spectacled

Woke up in the morning, and looked around, and thought for a while how can it look like this now. It took a second to realize and remember. Got down from my unicorn, was about to remove my helmet when something stopped me for a second. Realization. Same happens multiple times, when the hand scratches the space between the eyes. Habit, that i had got used to in the past 12-13 years of wearing spectacles.

There is a short story as to why i went for eye checkup before 12 years. Confessions have to be crisp and unclear. If you have any doubts, keep it with yourself, as i wont answer any of them. Anyway, when i was in 7th or 8th, we had a maths teacher, who teaches with great interest and care. And obviously she was strict. Silent whispers, gossips during the class were treated with heavy punishments. It was internal test that day, and i had not prepared well, sitting in the last desk was asking my friend something. Since the rest of the class was in full silence, i was caught. True to the name of friendship, my friend gave all the credit of the mischief to me. End result was i got around 12 out of 25. I Now that was enough to get my mom mood out when she returns from work and for an hour discussion at home. I was thinking about a reason, could not think much, just told the i wrote the question wrong since i could not see it clearly.The discussion ended and the life with the spectacles began.Soon i was adorned with a big, round spectacles. First it was weird, then it became part of life, soon it was the third and fourth eye. Have slept with specs on, not intentionally for dreams, but unintentionally which would leave me with bent specs. Never felt bad for wearing specs, or without specs also it was equally horrible, fortunately/unfortunately ;)

Anyway, thought about the option of lasik once i came out of college. When my parents brought it up, i was against it, as i didn't want to play with eyes. After watching few friends in safe state after years of surgery, decided to go with it. So before one month, did it, and gave rest to my spectacles. Very few friends bought the above reason. Can blame them, at 26 purchase of a pair of kerchief will also be considered as preparation for marriage. May be parents had it in back of mind, to me it was a good opportunity to get rid of the specs.

 

After four years

Woken up by the cold weather, I stared at my watch. 5.45am it was. joined my cousin standing near the door. the railway track cut through numerous buildings on both sides and the city looked peaceful. Was not sure how long I will have to stay in the city, but heart ran back to my home town, the only place I knew, the place where I had left all my friends the last night, the place where I head spent all my 21 years.

I had entered bangalore, the it hub of the nation. My life was no exception from the the usual indian life. Had dutifully studied till then, completed my bachelors, got job offer and I was all set to get settled. I had chosen hp over tcs among the two offers I had, and thats the reason I was here. All this happened 4 years before. While the ultra modern cosmopolitan city attracted on one side, a peaceful life looked like a remote possibility. Money was the master and also the least respected stuff. Brigade road, mg road, malls and multiplexes attracted for a while. Soon I found ways to lead my life, in the way I preferred.

More college friends joined, met a few more good people @ work. Life had returned back to normal. Few trips made it more interesting. Life in hp too was great. Nothing to complain except for the traffic, started liking the city. Few things remained unclear, like why gals who look so rich remained misers when it came to their dresses and roamed around the streets with very little clothes to cover them. Anyway not our concern, so life moved on. Juniors joined, few friends left for ms, few seniors got married, but I had got used to bangalore. The climate made me cling to the city. The city and the people continue to rock.

First job change after three years. moved out of hp where I was very comfortable. few good people around made life easier. No strong reason to move out except to explore the outside world. I moved. So I am here after four good years. I rarely talk about the present job. There are few things to be
happy about the current job. Few things proved that I am still a kindergarten in the school of life. Few troubled me. Whatever it is life continues and continues to amaze me.

If the post looked long and boring, blame BESCOM, for cutting power in the middle of the night, leaving me with no other option.

Delhi-Agra-BITS-Shimla Trip

Wanted to post a detailed day by day post about the trip, but as usual it stopped with the thought. Cause is laziness but i think most of you would be thankful for the same :-) Anyway that happens to be the first trip beyond Pune. Three guys with hindi knowledge limited to "Hindi Nahi Maalum" planned for a 9 days trip. It did turn out to be great. Will try hard to keep it short.

Day 1 : At Capital City : April 2, 2011 the day i had the first flight journey of life time. The only thing i liked was the initial acceleration when the flight sped on the highway, other than that it was horrible. Bike is fantastic and even journey in SETC is better compared to the 2 hour journey amidst the clouds. All the hype about Air Hostesses too vanished. They were extremely beautiful. Would not deny the fact, but their well trained actions reminded me about robots. Brain is so tuned, that it produced a curve in the lips when some words were uttered. Few called it a beautiful smile. Landed in Delhi at around 2.30PM, went to Karol Bagh for the hotel. Thanks to the wise decision from Nirmal's relative, for choosing Karol Bagh. It resembled more of a Tamil Area, and we felt at home. Later visited India Gate, and it did look great. Returned back to see the final, and what a moment it was :)

Day 2: Agra Trip : Had booked the trip with Panicker Travels. The trip started at 6.00 AM in the morning. First stop was at Agra fort followed by visit to the world wonder, Taj Mahal. Too crowded to enjoy the beauty, but it did look great. Stopped at Mathura on the way back to see Lord Krishna's birth place.

Day 3, 4, 5: @ Pilani : Anyway thats the reason behind this trip. Prepared for the trip to Pilani, for the viva on tuesday. Thanks to our junior William, he made the trip and stay in Pilani a pleasant one. Roamed around the campus like college students, but the students there gave a weird look :-) Viva is something i like to forget and visit to the campus is someting i would not want to do again, but would take the memories with me for a long time. BITS seems to have given its students a lot of freedom, and walk on the college roads in the night was interesting. Anyway on wednesday we were on our way back to Delhi, and got a chance to test the North indian village transport :) It rocked, literally ;)

Day 6, 7, 8: Trip to Shimla : Day 6, once again booked trip to shimla with Panicker travels and it did start exactly at 6.00 AM. We went via Chandigarh and was impressed with how well it was planned and built. Stopped at a lake, rock garden and rose garden. Nothing of interest for adventure loving bachelor crowd. Reached Himachal later in the evening and cool weather created some interest. Reached Shimla in the night and it was awfully cold. Next day morning, visited Kufri and in the afternoon, went for shopping in the city. Day 8, we started back to Delhi, and visited Pinjore Garden and Kurukshetra on the way. Was happy to get down from Shimla. Reached Delhi in the night.

Day 9: Last day of the trip, roamed around Delhi. Tried Delhi Metro, visited Raj Path, roamed around Jamma Masjid, Red Fort and then around Connaught's place. Flight was in the evening, and after the two and half hours boring trip, we were back,

Through out the trip, feasted well and it is during this time i would have ate a lot of panneer and pizzas. The trip was fantastic over all (i am not takign into considertion the viva though) !!!

Four years with 6030

It laid there in my bed, silently, with its blue eyes twinkling. It was my four year old Nokia 6030 (think i got the name right). One of the most basic models from Nokia, without any special features. But it was a bit special to me, since it came as a present from my sister, when i was doing my final year.

It was fun then, final semester, with Airtel offering 100 free SMS daily, texting was what i did with that phone back then. Sending SMS inside classrooms when class is going on, reading the funny forward messages forwarded from my friends. Never knew where it originates, but they were absolutely funny. Funny one liners, fantastic stories, innovative mokkais, it was fun. Absolute fun. At times had to face the wrath of my parents for having book in one hand and mobile in another hand, and texting all time. They should have felt weird seeing their son smiling seeing the mobile. Few days it used to go past 100 sms but still continued. Inbox had to be cleared daily along with sent items. I had managed to save a few of them, and it amuses me a lot when i read them now, with a bit of nostalgic feeling.  To quote a few

"Life is small, live it ! Troubles are momentary, face it ! Memories are sweet, cherish it ! You are good, I agree it ! I am too good, Accept it"

"You are a rose for all trees, you are a smile for all faces, you are a waterfall for all hills, you are a brother for all beautiful girls"  - I got this as one of my senior decided to stress this to his friends in the middle of the night.

"Karpanayei Nesi, Kavithai Pidikum,
kavithayei Nesi, Kaathal pidkum,
kaathalai Nesi, Pennai pidikum,
Pennai Nesi, paithiyam pidikum"

"Loving what you get is compromise, Getting what you love is success, Loving even after knowing that you wont get is pure love".

Few of the above quoted have a huge history associated with them. Probably a few of my friends can realize it. I do have a few more, but cannot be shared ;)

Now that was past, coming back to what is happening at present. Lying in my bed, i was looking at my mobile. I had just one SMS in my inbox, a worthless message that i forgot to delete. So that took be back to all these memories. I do receive a lot of SMS now, but they are all just notifications or advertisements. They just irritate and get deleted as and when they arrive.

I used to talk a lot when i initially started working. I was without laptop or TV. My friends were in the same state. As time progressed, it slowly stopped, with few of my friends not even in the same country. My Nokia 6030 is sleeping silently near me, rarely disturbing me,  and at times with its blue eyes twinkling when the screen saver gets activated just reminding me of the past.

I have no intention of replacing that until it decides to commit suicide. Get a feeling it just initiated the process.  Just remembered that i haven't changed even the theme from the day i got it. Good that it doesn't have many features, i like to stay away from the virtual Net world at times, to lose myself in thought of my past, the thought of few people close to my heart, gals who have disturbed me so far, crazy buggers i see daily, gods, dogs, cats, bats, rats  and if not anything else the universe in general.

A Vacation Well Spent

It was a near shutdown, thanks to the diwali, rajyotsava day, company leave policy and the kind Manager. 9 days to be spent @ home town, diwali, sweets, sister's visit, it was exciting to even think about. It also gave an opportunity to visit College and upgrade the servers. More than that to meet my Senior and Junior friends.

Day 1 (rather Night 1): Reached home on Saturday, finished off few work (including eating fish curry) managed to reach College by around 4 PM. It was Thevar Jeyanthi that day and journey through Madurai roads was thrilling. The followers of the leader we indulging in all sort of activiites, exactly opposite to what the leader might have wanted them to do. Joe, Balamurugan, LGP, GRK, Varadharajan and Gautam were already working. Met all the staffs from Unix Lab. It took a little time to recollect what we had done during our college days and what has happened after we left. Started with upgrading the TCENet server. It soon extended into Night and after a long long time, it was going to be a night lab in College. Had dinner at Aarthi, and i could see Aarthi has put up a brave struggle against change, with the only change being the cost of items. Worked till 5.00 AM, went home and crashed into bed.

Day 2: Woke up late, had lunch and started to college in Car. First time tried driving alone in Madurai City, where the only traffic rule applicable is to forget all the traffic rules. And it rained heavily once i started, visibility was reduced to less than 10 metres. Still i progressed, tried hitting two gals in TVSScooty. Their good luck they escaped. Rain stopped and i reached college without any further adventures. Was a bit delayed due to issues with AC. Yep the server room still has few issues with AC and UPS :) Started working upgrading the server and trying to configure Samba. Dinner was parotta, kothu parotta and dosai from TPK. Had a chat with Gautam, an enthusiastict second year guy.In the middle of the night, Samba configuration got over but it was not working as expected :( :( Windows machine were not able to login. Problem persisted through out the Night.

Day 3: Could not go home, had a quick rest for a hour in guest house and started the day exploring Samba. First it seemed to suggest issues with versions. Tried changing the configuration, didn't work. BitBala, LGP tried from their end, issue was not resolved. It was sometime in the evening, still the issue persisted. Anyway whatever it is, we have the solution with us. Yes, at last Joe pitched in after completing his work. Few minutes issue was resolved. Problem was with NSCD. Stopped "NSCD" everything worked fine. Bala, LGP, Varatharajan had completed work from their end. So putting an end to all that, started the thrilling night ride to home along with the friends.

Day 3 being Monday, gave opportunity to meet other staffs. Met the staff who had handled System Software, Compiler design etc. Surprised that she still remembered me, my name and friends name too. Was eager to see the staff who handled C/S technologis and was extremely happy that i could meet her, though she could remember the face, she has forgotten the name. I was quite amazed that even after three years, how staffs remember us. Had a quick chat with OOAD Mam, and could only wish Softwre Engg Mam. Anyway the staff who had talked to me during FStival, as though he recognized me, failed to recognize this time after two weeks as expected :) I would consider this as the default behavior but the other staffs were amazing. Also, TCS had visited the campus that day, once again made me nostalgic and took me back by three years.

Anyway All ended well in college, reached home and crashed in bed for a looong sleep.

Rest of Vacation: Next two days were successfully destructed by "Diablo: Lord of Destruction". Then Sister arrived with her family. Diwali followed, and since my little neice was around, it was interesting. Decided to celebrate the Diwali without seeing Actor/Actress interviews and succeeded. Soon it was time to leave, and reached here traveling for the first time in car from Madurai to Bangalore, since i had joined my Brother who was coming car. And it was more thriling with people violating the rules in highway as they wish.

Nine days vacation vanished, and now i am back to my working place. I was happy with the way the vacation went, since i managed to few things apart from staying in front of the computer and TV.

2009

Had been thinking for a while, should i do this ? I mean once again troubling you with this post of mine, stating what i did, what i didn't do blah blah blah.. It is this thought that has prevented me a lot many times from posting something, anyway here we go.

As the title suggests, it is about great things i did last year 2009. I had a good amount of time to waste, and the dance and song shows in TV was not impressive. So i tried hard, really hard to recollect what i did throught out the year. For a moment i blamed my memory power, as i could not recollect anything. Later i realized, how long i spend thinking about 2009, i wont get anything. Ha ha that was my 2009, in the sense quite ordinary without any trouble or surprises. Work was fine and other than work it was movies, trips and journey back home. 2009 will be remembered for a lot of significant events in the world but to me it was yet another normal year which went away happily.

Anyway, Happy new year to all.

Wait, hold your patience for some more time while i talk about new year resolution. I managed to think of a resolution for this new year and it is not to take further resolutions.

The Munnar Trip

Since most of my school friends will be joining college for further studies next month, we thought of going for a trip before that. Initial plan was to go for an IPL match, but soon it was ruled out once IPL was moved to South Africa and we decided upon Munnar. The trip turned out to be nice and enjoyable though we did not plan well enough.

Started on thursday evening to Cochin in KSRTC special bus. The speciality of the bus is it will start late, bus will be bit older than normal buses and we will have to rely on just one driver who will have to drive for the next 14 hours without sleeping. Anyway reached Cochin safely at 12.00 and went to Vinod's home. He had changed a bit and was talking like Major Sundarrajan, who has acted in old tamil movies. To lend more clarity, Major Sundarrajan says a dialogue in english, and repeats the same in Tamil. He was behaving in a similar way :) cant blame him, with nobody to talk in Tamil at cochin the change is expected. Anyway we started to Munnar in another KSRTC where K stands for Kerala and not Karnataka. Kerala buses resemble the buses shown in 1960 tamil movies. They definitely have a large scope of improvement. But driver's expertise in driving the bus through the hilly terrain was impressive and we reached Munnar correctly at 7.30 PM.

Once we stepped into munnar, we were sure that we are not going to get any room. Looked like tourists have invaded Munnar trying to evade the summer heat. We tried hunting for rooms but could not get anything, finally with the help of an auto driver Subramani, booked a room which i can safely call as bit expensive. We retired to sleep on that night with plans of going for sight seeing the next day.

Next day (saturday) we started towards the Mattupetty direction stopping at places wherever there was a scenic view. Soon we discovered that the entire path is going to be liked that, with Tea estates covering the entire hills and provided a pleasant in every direction. Few places of interest in that direction are Mattupetty dam, Kundale dam, Top station.

Next day (Sunday) since we had to return back to Cochin to catch the bus back to our city at 7.40, visited just the Leckam waterfalls and came back. We had stayed away from the scorching heat for two days, and Cochin heat was untolerable. The return journey was also in the same special bus, with the same driver who once again managed to bring us back to the city safely. If we had gone to Munnar directly skipping cochin, we could have got more time to spend in Munnar. Munnar will need atleast three days to rest and enjoy the weather. Also book for rooms in advance to avoid troubles at the end.

The post was more about my personal experience, check my friend's post for more details here.

Check out the snaps at http://picasaweb.google.com/sens2003/MunnarTrip#

Vacation once again...

Back on a weeklong vacation and in my sister's home with nothing to do actually. So you know why i am typing this now. The trip was in fdoubt till the last day, since there were too many issues on my plate to finish. Burnt a lot of midnight oil on thursday, transferred a few cases to few kind people in the team :) and i was on railway station to catch the train. Boarded S7, and got an unexpected welcome. Looked like Mom and Dad have already given a good introduction about me. Even if i travel for 4 days, there is a very little probability of getting friendly with someone. The same does not hold good for my parents. Two days of little sleep pushed me to sleep in few minutes. Thought of setting an alarm, but once i saw the tiny toddler in the lower berth, decided not to. Knew he would wake me up at 4.30 or 5.00. He did not disappoint me, and he let out a loud cry at 4.30AM. Now i had 12 long hours to kill with very little options. Tiring, boring, sweating, disturbing, thats how the journey was.

When i started browsing the pages of Anantha Vikadan, the expected problem in this train has already started. In the south, boarding the Reserved Compartment with open ticket is not approved and the rule is strictly adhered to. But it is the reverse in North. So it happens in every train running from South to North. The issue was resolved soon. Anyway coming back to Anantha Vikadan, looks like i am reading it after 36 weeks. Think should start the habit once again as it seems to be more informative.

Found a lot of people to be sleeping and tried it. But could not since the train was more like mobile oven. What else can be expected during Indian Summer ? The tiring journey ended finally at 4.30 and now i am once again bugging you people with this post :) One guy warned over phone not to post about this, but i had already drafted spending my valuable time. Anyway BFN :)

What awaits in office after the vacation, is a bit scary to imagine. Lets see how it goes.

Rail Payanangalil

Policeman: Is there a round table conference happening ?
We: No sir, just a small chat
Policeman: Dont feel sleepy ?
We: No sir. We will not get opportunity to meet only during train journeys. So just having a little chat. We will sleep in another fifteen minutes.
Policeman: Ok. Keep an eye on your belongings.
We: Sure.

Hmmm, things like this happen when you stay awake and keep chatting even when the clock ticks 12.00 or 1.00 in train. Though it invites cold stares from most of the policemen and ticket examiners we choose to ignore them and continue. Anyway thought these train journeys deserved a mention. Journey to hometown nowadays resembles a mini tour, with ten to twelve of our friends in a single coupe. It is a heterogenous crowd consisting of juniors, seniors and colleague friends. The discussion starts with update on what has happened to each and every guy since we last met. What could have happened to a bunch of s/w engineers who spend most of the time in front of the computer. So it is always the other guy who talks about his friend, with imagination playing a major role. The noise we create is at its peak, since most of the times all people talk together or laugh together. The crowd slowly disperses after lights are switched off in all coupes. But it does not end there. Only after 12.00 people get realization and start talking about company, present situtaion, future plans, recession, india, world, college etc etc inviting cold stares from the roaming policemen. Trips were boring when i used to travel alone and books usually help in passing time. Now i take books but seldom read them. I dont feel bored or dont have a feeling that there is some time to kill. Hope it continues.

P.S. For those who donot understand the title, it is a title of a famous tamil movie which roughly translates to happenings in train journey.

2008

Just after the 8 days vacation i am here back in bangalore. With few minutes left to start to office, i am trying to recollect what happened during 2008, that is worth to post in this blog. So it is going to be a bit personal so you can stop reading here if you wish.

Anyway 2008 was an uneventful year and not much happened through out the year.

Not much to comment about the job.
Saw too many movies in theater and through CDs and DVDs. No new year resolution to reduce that also :) So i expect the same situation will prevail in 2009 also.
The best part of last year is the trips along with my friends and seniors, lets see whether i can get them in the correct order.
Jan - Kollimalai, Shivasamudra, Bandipur, Mysore
Feb - Chennai
April - Goa
September - Jog, Murudheshwar
Oct - Tirunelvezhi
Nov - Trichy.
For the first time in lifetime saw a cricket match in stadium. Went to the IPL T20 match between Chennai Superkings and Banglore Royal Challengers.
My sis was blessed with a baby girl and i had a great time playing with the kid.
Attempts to learn hindi and kannada went in vain and almost dropped the idea by end of the year.
For the first time started reading tamil novels with Kalki's Ponniyin Selvan and soon completed Sivagamiyin Sabatham and Parthiban Kanavu.

I am not sure whether i have missed something. Since memory is not willing to cooperate, ending the post now.

Just one resolution for 2009,

Try to come home early :) I tried and failed a lot many times last year trying to do this. Lets see whether i can make that a habit this year :)

Happy New Year.

Trip to Jog, Murudeshwar, Kollur and Sringeri

I am yet to recover fully from the effects of the trip, both physically and mentally. Physically it was challenging and it is not a trip to forget so soon. It was not a well planned trip but it turned out to be a great one with every piece falling into place at the last minute. The trip started with the journey to Jog falls, through the orphaned roads of Karnataka. Any road that is outside bangalore is neglected and looks like government rarely notices those roads. Anyway after few hours of bumpy ride, we reached Sagar where we spent sometime to clean ourselves and finish breakfast, before we headed for the most gruesome part of the trip. We reached Jog falls and then started the journey down to the abyss of the waterfalls. The cataract falling from around 900 ft height is the highest waterfall in India, and the journey to the bottom of the fall s through the half constructed steps tested the physical fitness. The view from the bottom of the Jog falls is worth taking and view and the  cool breeze is all too great to ignore and the pain is worth taking. Climbing back to the top required arduous efforts.

After that we went to Murudeshwar, a silent sea shore with a huge siva statue. Rest of the evening went in mini football. If you are in doubt what was mini in that, everything was mini right from the team, playground to the ball. Yep, we played football with a tennis ball in a small area with four members per team. But it turned out to be an interesting game. After few months, it was good be involved in some fat burning activity.

Next day we went to two temples kollur and shringeri. While kollur potrayed kerala architecture and look, in shringeri it was fully Hoysala (borrowed from Prabhu's IP). Sringeri temple is  located on the banks of River Tunga. This river deservers special mention because on the shores you will find huge school of fishes of size which i had never seen till now.  After that started the most difficult phase of the the trip, sitting in van for several hours and being rocked like a baby because of the narrow turns on the way to chickmagalur. Putting all together it is an wonderful trip to remember.

Before i fall asleep without switching my laptop, here are the links for the photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/kpraveen85/JogFallsShimoga
http://picasaweb.google.com/kpraveen85/Murudeshwar
http://picasaweb.google.com/kpraveen85/SringeriKollurAgumbe

For my share stay in touch with http://picasaweb.google.com/sens2003 It would take a little more time before i upload the photos. Before last half of the left eye closes, i am signing off now.

The forgotten subject

Was looking at a crossword in the newspaper, aiming to find atleast few answers. Bind brightened on seeing something that is relavant and what i have studied for around 6 years. The enthusiasm died in a minute once i started to think about the answer. The question was imple, "What is the unit of magnetic flux" I spent the next 30 minutes trying to the sqeeze the answer out of mind. It has gone completely out of the mind. The newspaper reported the answer as Gauss. Looks like the SI unit of magnetic flux is weber, probably gauss is in CGS. Was discussing about this with my friend while walking to the office, he asked a few more questions like difference between AC motor and DC motor. Was not able to answer anything  except for a smile. Asked the same question to few other colleagues here. I am not the only one in this state. Physics has gone completely out of the mind. The same goes for other subjects like chemistry, biology.  History is already a history.

In school i used to admire Physics for the reason it deals with what happens around us. At times i feel i should revive the physics knowledge. I know that would not happen, my laziness would make sure  that i don't do things like that :)

The paradise lost

I took this snap when i was rummaging my belongings. These  xerox papers made me nostalgic as i started thinking about those great moments in college. Though i used to collect all the xerox papers, rarely i completed them before the exam. The xerox collection process itself is interesting. During the first year i tried hard to get the book or atleast take the xerox well before the exam. It was exactly opposite during the final year. I remember collecting xerox the day before the examination. I was not even willing to spend some money to take xerox for some subjects. During college days collecting xerox and managing them, searching and locating the xerox before the exam were difficult tasks. After coming out of the college, everything done in college looks beautiful. College looks like "The paradise lost" Yeah, Past appears beautiful as long as the present goes well. Managed to upload most of the photos taken during college days relying on  google servers than on my system hard disk. You can find them here. Now spending time browsing through these pictures and talking with friends about the fun that we had in college. Hmmm.. Life is treacherous.

Walking down the memory lane

Was involved in the process of cleaning my room and found eight hall tickets, two hidden internal mark sheets, numerous test and assignment notes that made me nostalgic and took me back to the college days. Though the college life has ended, the memories continue to haunt. The four years gave different experiences, some good some bitter. Put together they look beautiful. Past looks beautiful as long as you enjoy the present. Here is a brief account of my four years in college.

First Year : During the first semester i was a sincere student and did nothing other than studying, writing assignments, doing maths tutorial etc etc. Got GPA of 9.0, the highest in my college life. During the EDC  class in second semester, got back the old habit of talking and singing. The guy responsible for this happens to be my friend sriram. During the first year i never missed A5 or B14 (buses).

Second Year : Became a member of the team maintaining TCENet, college intra net portal. Got the opportunity to meet a number of seniors. The seniors together formed a formidable team. Had a great time with them and learnt a lot from them too. It was there i got introduced to GNU/Linux, FOSS and mailing lists. Went to virtusa as a part of internship program, came back and contributed very little to the project AAOSK offered by team virtusa. Attended GLUGOT meetings, started studying PHP and started a small project called openquiz. Played a small role in organizing FStival'04, the software freedom  celebrations in college.

Third Year : CAS and Cyber 05 are the two notable things during the third year. Designed the web portal for Cyber 05. Cyber 05 gave a lot of experiences, some good, some bitter and both are fresh in
memory. Started the project Centralized Authentication System for the college. Parallel processing lab became a second home as night labs forced me to stay in lab most of the time. Successfully finished and launched CAS. Along with seniors organized FStival'05. Had a great time with the finalyear students. Switched over to B5, the last bus to college.

Final year : Placed in TCS and then in HP. In between had Honeywell interview where i managed to gather a bit of courage to argue with the interviewer. During the seventh semester, contributed to the redesigning of college website. Along with the third years organized FStival'06. During the final semester there was abrupt change in my character and found it very difficult to listen to classes. Spent time in class listening to stories of my friend vanni or sleeping peacefully. Spent most of the afternoon or project time in pump house. Left the habit of writing assignments on own and studying for internals. Started missing B5 and came five, ten or fifteen minutes late to college. Saw a lot of movies. Final year gave opportunities or enjoyment which i think i utilized well.

Now i am an engineer...

This post is totally irrelavant to those who do not know me.

Now i can proudly add the two letter B.E. to the end of my name. Successfully completed bachelor of engineering and now i am one among the engineers of India. Results were announced yesterday (7th may) when none of us were expecting it. But it did not do any harm. After three semesters of same mark 8.29 it was good to get something more than that. This time GPA was 8.53.

It is interesting to see the GPA and CGPA curve. The GPA started with reasonably good mark in first semester, 9.0. After that it turned out to be a monotonically decreasing sequence with GPAs 8.97, 8.86, 8.57, 8.29, 8.29, 8.29. Atlast in the final semester it is 8.53. The CGPA curve looks more like a straight line with negative slope. Anyway now its all over and its an happy ending to the college life.

tvslakshmischool.org

Yesterday i got the link to my school website . I do not know whether my school had the website when i was studying there. But now it is there. The site looks cool and has been designed using PHP(one of my favourite languages). They also have a separate login for alumni. I registered myself as as alumni there. I am still unable to accept the fact that i am an alumni of the prestigious institution. The memories are still fresh. Those were glorius moments to be forgetted soon. I have not explored the site fully. If you happen to be a alumni of TVSLMHSS and if have not visited it yet. Go to tvslakshmischool.org andexplore. You will feel a little nostalgic.