Note: This post contains reference to names and places, which might make sense only to TCE folks. It will be a bit long too. And at few places managed to mention about FStival, the main reason behind the visit :P
After two years break, i was back at FStival, the software freedom day celebration organised by GLUGOT and GLUG-Madurai. Accompanied by Junior Sai went to the function a little late as usual and stayed away from the chief guest address which seemed to be halfway through in K.S. Auditorium. The chief guest was none other than our senior, Mr. Amalan Joe Steeve. When the chief guest was addressing the crowd, myself and Sai, decided to roam around the college and check out the changes. And our junior Karthikeyan, who is presently doing 3rd year gave a good company for more than an hour. In two years, college has changed a lot, but there are still a lot of landmarks left to make you nostalgic.
The CSE classes are being held in the new building in front of IT department. The open air auditorium is functioning. There is a new building in the pump house. There is some new building coming up in front of the Maths Department. There is one more new building coming up near hostel. Very few monkeys in pump house and CSE Aalamaram. Z0 my final year class room has changed. The tables where 10 of us sit in a row has changed and it is now replaced with single chairs, and the room looks clean. I think the lab which was adjacent to Unix lab, previously called as Client/Server lab is now called as IBM lab !!!! Wondering how it got the name though and whether there is a plan to change the names of other labs to HP, M$, Oracle labs :P N/w lab is now called as Multicore lab or something. No changes to Apple and Web Design labs. The ditch in front of the library remains occupied with boys and as usual guys were having fun.
Met all the staffs in Unix lab except for Shalinie mam, since she had a meeting to attend after FStival and went straight there after the chief guess address. Met a staff who managed to talk as though he remembered me, while i doubt whether he did really. And then a mam who was travelling in auto showed signs of recognition. Whatever it is, it was great to be in College after two years and to get a feeling few staffs still can recognize you. This FStival also gave an opportunity to meet few of my juniors. It was fun as usual talking to them.
Coming to FStival, there were so many stalls this time. Congrats to them. Also there were around 300+ audience for FStival, including people from near by colleges and schools which was good. Roaming around the stalls was fun, we had stood behind and had explained the audience few years back :-) One major change was that students were using personal laptops in stalls. Looked like a corporate presentation with around 10 laptops in lab :P Finally left the college at around 5.00PM planning to visit later when i get time...
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Bheemeswari River Rafting & Shivasamudra
After a few failed attempts at trips and treks, this trip to Bheemeswari became special just for the reason that we are going on a trip. Also probably the first trip with friends and families for the anna's who got married before sometime. As usual, the trip was planned all of a sudden, happened fast and ended well.
We started from Bangalore at around 6.30AM in the Innova which Pramod Anna managed to book. Loaded the car with so much of snacks and food that would suffice around 20 people, but taking into consideration that myself and Mani are going, we didn't take any chance. The plan was to go through Kanakpura and reach Bheemeswari. In few minutes, DP started the snacks grinding job and provoked others too and we all soon obliged. First stop was at some place after kanakapura, for breakfast. Hotel guys gave us the option of poori and spicy tomato rice, both of which were not good.
The journey was fun filled. We crossed a small hillock on the way and the scenery was good. We managed to reach the Kaveri fishing camp by around 10.30AM i guess. Quickly checked whether rafting was available and fortunately it was. The charge was 600 Rs per head. We soon paid the amount and geared up for the task wearing the life jackets and helmets. Soon our guide arrived gave the instructions and we started with our quest, 8KM ride from the camp to Muttati.
Rafting in kaveri is graded +2 rapids and is easy for beginers and non risky. The water was calm and there were few rapids here and there which gave a little ecstasy. Our guide Amit, manoeuvered the boat between the rocks with ease and explained about rafting in general, about the place, about rafting in North India. But all in Hindi :( :( Could make out the overall meaning of what he said, but we had a very patient translator Reena Anni who translated each and every word.
In the middle of the ride, we can get into the water and have a dip, and it was cool. Soon the ride came to an end and we came back to the fishing camp. And then started on the long ride to shivasamudra. I think this is the fourth time i am visiting the falls, so it was not that exciting. Visited Barachukki and gaganachukki and started on the long journey back to Bangalore, with a little sleep and as usual with non stop chatting.
We started from Bangalore at around 6.30AM in the Innova which Pramod Anna managed to book. Loaded the car with so much of snacks and food that would suffice around 20 people, but taking into consideration that myself and Mani are going, we didn't take any chance. The plan was to go through Kanakpura and reach Bheemeswari. In few minutes, DP started the snacks grinding job and provoked others too and we all soon obliged. First stop was at some place after kanakapura, for breakfast. Hotel guys gave us the option of poori and spicy tomato rice, both of which were not good.
The journey was fun filled. We crossed a small hillock on the way and the scenery was good. We managed to reach the Kaveri fishing camp by around 10.30AM i guess. Quickly checked whether rafting was available and fortunately it was. The charge was 600 Rs per head. We soon paid the amount and geared up for the task wearing the life jackets and helmets. Soon our guide arrived gave the instructions and we started with our quest, 8KM ride from the camp to Muttati.
Rafting in kaveri is graded +2 rapids and is easy for beginers and non risky. The water was calm and there were few rapids here and there which gave a little ecstasy. Our guide Amit, manoeuvered the boat between the rocks with ease and explained about rafting in general, about the place, about rafting in North India. But all in Hindi :( :( Could make out the overall meaning of what he said, but we had a very patient translator Reena Anni who translated each and every word.
In the middle of the ride, we can get into the water and have a dip, and it was cool. Soon the ride came to an end and we came back to the fishing camp. And then started on the long ride to shivasamudra. I think this is the fourth time i am visiting the falls, so it was not that exciting. Visited Barachukki and gaganachukki and started on the long journey back to Bangalore, with a little sleep and as usual with non stop chatting.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe
I dont know whether it is a virus in first place, but it was irritating to me. A filenamed "Durai'sAutoProtection.vbe" gets copied to my pen drive everytime i inserted my pendrive into my windows box at office. My GNU/Linux laptop at home is my antivirus for pendrive. I kept removing the file from my pendrive and after a while got totally irritated and decided to fix it once for all.
First job is to track the location of the vbscript file. A bit of googling revealed that it is present in C:\Windows\system32 folder. To see the file, you will have to enable the following in folder options.
* Mark Show hidden files and folders
* Unmark Hide extensions of Known file types
* Unmark Hide protected Operating system files
Now i could see the file "Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe" in C:\WINDOWS\System32 directory. This is actually a VB script file, and i tried looking into the vb script code. Since i dont know even few words of vb script, could not guess much. But it claims to be removing a few viruses, and does few undesirable stuffs too.
1) Changes registry settings to change the Internet Explorer Title bar name to Durai.
2) Sets the default page of IE to some site.
3) Copies itself into pendrives inserted.
Though the file can be located, it is not possible to delete the file. Says the file is being used. The program using it is wscript.exe. Could not get much info about the same. Stop the process and then delete the file. Make sure the read only flag of the file is deselected before trying to delete.
Next to fix the registry settings,
Open regedit, and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\INTERNET EXPLORER\MAIN\ and then delete the Key value Window Title. Also change the starting address back to about:blank or whatever you want.
Also, inside HKEY_ LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon the following key "Userinit" will be set to execute the vbscript file. Now since the file is removed, it will report an error everytime we logon. It will be set to some value like,
“C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscript.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe”
Change this to just, “C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe"
With this the virus or unnecessary script will be removed from the machine. At times harmless stuffs like this are interesting to analyze and fix.
First job is to track the location of the vbscript file. A bit of googling revealed that it is present in C:\Windows\system32 folder. To see the file, you will have to enable the following in folder options.
* Mark Show hidden files and folders
* Unmark Hide extensions of Known file types
* Unmark Hide protected Operating system files
Now i could see the file "Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe" in C:\WINDOWS\System32 directory. This is actually a VB script file, and i tried looking into the vb script code. Since i dont know even few words of vb script, could not guess much. But it claims to be removing a few viruses, and does few undesirable stuffs too.
1) Changes registry settings to change the Internet Explorer Title bar name to Durai.
2) Sets the default page of IE to some site.
3) Copies itself into pendrives inserted.
Though the file can be located, it is not possible to delete the file. Says the file is being used. The program using it is wscript.exe. Could not get much info about the same. Stop the process and then delete the file. Make sure the read only flag of the file is deselected before trying to delete.
Next to fix the registry settings,
Open regedit, and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\INTERNET EXPLORER\MAIN\ and then delete the Key value Window Title. Also change the starting address back to about:blank or whatever you want.
Also, inside HKEY_ LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon the following key "Userinit" will be set to execute the vbscript file. Now since the file is removed, it will report an error everytime we logon. It will be set to some value like,
“C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscript.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\Durai'sVirusProtection.vbe”
Change this to just, “C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe"
With this the virus or unnecessary script will be removed from the machine. At times harmless stuffs like this are interesting to analyze and fix.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Costly Affair
Was talking with my niece over the phone. Though she utters few words over the phone, this is the first time she was telling me some rhymes, that too completely, with a lot of enthusiasm. The reason behind the change is she has been going to school for few days, her first step towards interaction with a lot of kids around her. Since she had spent most part of her first two years inside the house, with minimal interaction with children, the idea of meeting a lot of children kept her excited i guess.
Good that they had the play school concept, which allows kids to get accustomed to the school environment, with interest. But the cost at which it comes, exceeds the cost that we might have spent during the entire engineering course. 45K for just two hours of class everyday. Looks like it is the same in Bangalore too, could be a little higher also. That is more than the total money i spent in a yyear doing my B.E. From what i heard from few of my seniors, they completed four years of Engineering in half the amount now collected in Play School.
Few Parents seemed a lot worried it seems, about the performance of the child. Worries about performance at two years is very early i guess. Education and Medicine are two things, where people wont take a chance. Which also gives the businessmen a chance to reap rich which they are doing without fail. Cant say whether the parent's views are wrong, but what is clearly wrong is the schools using the opportunity to smuggle in the name of education. The situation is not likely to change, i might end up doing the same mistake in future, but still could not stop thinking at present.
Good that they had the play school concept, which allows kids to get accustomed to the school environment, with interest. But the cost at which it comes, exceeds the cost that we might have spent during the entire engineering course. 45K for just two hours of class everyday. Looks like it is the same in Bangalore too, could be a little higher also. That is more than the total money i spent in a yyear doing my B.E. From what i heard from few of my seniors, they completed four years of Engineering in half the amount now collected in Play School.
Few Parents seemed a lot worried it seems, about the performance of the child. Worries about performance at two years is very early i guess. Education and Medicine are two things, where people wont take a chance. Which also gives the businessmen a chance to reap rich which they are doing without fail. Cant say whether the parent's views are wrong, but what is clearly wrong is the schools using the opportunity to smuggle in the name of education. The situation is not likely to change, i might end up doing the same mistake in future, but still could not stop thinking at present.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Chithira Pavai
After a long time, i completed reading a book. Thanks to the power cut at home which gave me no other option other than reading the book. I had the choice of reading a subject book and a story book and the obvious choice as usual was the story book. So completed the rest of Akilan's Chithira Pavai. Thanks to my seniors for suggesting the book and lending the book too.
Its a novel that has won Gnanapit Award, book was released before 35 years, hence wont talk much about the story line. What Akilan has told before 35 years in the book is still valid and will be applicable to the present middle class families. In the middle of the story, Akilan mentions about the desire that slowly arises in the middle class families, which slowly transform into greed, and causes havoc at the end. Can this be ignored now ? No way, i guess. Since this trend can still be seen in most of the middle class families. Is it true with respect to the budding software engineers ? I leave it for you to decide. Also depicted in the book is the struggled of an artist who finds it difficult to make a living, the life of a calm and good natured girl, a gal of exactly opposite character and a character who keeps running behind money.
The final few pages were really interesting and read it at a rapid pace. The end though can be predicted, sounds good. I had aversion towards the social novels like this, due to the misunderstanding that there is nothing new in the social novels. But "Chithira Pavai" proved to be an entertainer with a lot of anecdotes and advice, that can still be applied to the life, which we are leading right now.
Had read a lot of English novels and books and was under the impression that Tamil doesn't have much, but the view changed after i read Kalki books and it still continues as i continue to explore the rich treasures of Tamil literature.
Its a novel that has won Gnanapit Award, book was released before 35 years, hence wont talk much about the story line. What Akilan has told before 35 years in the book is still valid and will be applicable to the present middle class families. In the middle of the story, Akilan mentions about the desire that slowly arises in the middle class families, which slowly transform into greed, and causes havoc at the end. Can this be ignored now ? No way, i guess. Since this trend can still be seen in most of the middle class families. Is it true with respect to the budding software engineers ? I leave it for you to decide. Also depicted in the book is the struggled of an artist who finds it difficult to make a living, the life of a calm and good natured girl, a gal of exactly opposite character and a character who keeps running behind money.
The final few pages were really interesting and read it at a rapid pace. The end though can be predicted, sounds good. I had aversion towards the social novels like this, due to the misunderstanding that there is nothing new in the social novels. But "Chithira Pavai" proved to be an entertainer with a lot of anecdotes and advice, that can still be applied to the life, which we are leading right now.
Had read a lot of English novels and books and was under the impression that Tamil doesn't have much, but the view changed after i read Kalki books and it still continues as i continue to explore the rich treasures of Tamil literature.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Madrasapattinam
What had happened to me. Should remember 2009-2010 for the fact that it is during this time, i might have seen the maximum number of movies. Saw Madrasapattinam yesterday, a movie that i am seeing on the first day after a long time. Instigated by my friends at HP, decided to dump the CR that was creating a panic and reached the theatre 5 minutes before the movie at 6.10PM. For the third time in a row, watched the movie at Pushpanjali.
Owing to the fact that there was not much expectations for the movie, there was not much crowd in the theatre. Found the movie to be really good. Director Vijay has done a great job, supported by good acting by Arya. Highlight of the movie is the heroine, AmyJackson, who looked cute and adorable. No wonder she was awareded Miss Teen World beauty pageant. Her intro scene was applauded more than that of Arya's, surprisingly. Her screen presence was enough to mesmerize and crystal clear expressions did justice to the role. Lip synchronization was not all that great, but owing to the fact the even heroines born and brought up in TamilNadu do it worse, it can be neglected. Good selection of costume too for her.
Just to give a hint about the story without revealing much, the movie starts with Old English woman about to die, with the desire to visit India, in search of a guy whom she had met before 60 years in Madrasapattinam (Chennai). The story moves on interwined with her search at present and her memories explaining the reason behind the search.
Vijay should have worked hard, to bring Chennai as it was 60 years before in the screen. Though he might have tasted 100% success in this arduous task, it is a commendable effort. Arya as usual does his job easily. Climax is a bit sentimental and good. Overall a simple story well told.
Coming to -ves, GV Prakash as usual was a BIG disaapointment. BGM was good at few places, but it remebled a bit tweaked 7G's BGM and at few places it was irritating too. Few scenes resemble Titanic, which could have been avoided. First half was a lot interesting, second half fails to move at the same pace, but not a matter of concern actually. Scenes were a bit predictable. But all these can be ignored as the +ves overcome the -ves easily and at the it is a very good movie, worth watching.
After all this movie might break the myth that all the movies i see in the first day will become a flop :) :) Think it will do that with ease.
Owing to the fact that there was not much expectations for the movie, there was not much crowd in the theatre. Found the movie to be really good. Director Vijay has done a great job, supported by good acting by Arya. Highlight of the movie is the heroine, AmyJackson, who looked cute and adorable. No wonder she was awareded Miss Teen World beauty pageant. Her intro scene was applauded more than that of Arya's, surprisingly. Her screen presence was enough to mesmerize and crystal clear expressions did justice to the role. Lip synchronization was not all that great, but owing to the fact the even heroines born and brought up in TamilNadu do it worse, it can be neglected. Good selection of costume too for her.
Just to give a hint about the story without revealing much, the movie starts with Old English woman about to die, with the desire to visit India, in search of a guy whom she had met before 60 years in Madrasapattinam (Chennai). The story moves on interwined with her search at present and her memories explaining the reason behind the search.
Vijay should have worked hard, to bring Chennai as it was 60 years before in the screen. Though he might have tasted 100% success in this arduous task, it is a commendable effort. Arya as usual does his job easily. Climax is a bit sentimental and good. Overall a simple story well told.
Coming to -ves, GV Prakash as usual was a BIG disaapointment. BGM was good at few places, but it remebled a bit tweaked 7G's BGM and at few places it was irritating too. Few scenes resemble Titanic, which could have been avoided. First half was a lot interesting, second half fails to move at the same pace, but not a matter of concern actually. Scenes were a bit predictable. But all these can be ignored as the +ves overcome the -ves easily and at the it is a very good movie, worth watching.
After all this movie might break the myth that all the movies i see in the first day will become a flop :) :) Think it will do that with ease.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Singam
Watched this mass masala movie from Hari, last weekend. Accompanied by Sai, Nari and Jeyahari, Singam was Sunday's assignment. First time, i went to the theatre near my home, Pushpanjali. Pushpanjali folks used the time, applied the strategy, closed the counters and sold the tickets at 40 Rs more than the original amount, at Rs. 100. Irritating strategy when you are at the receiving end.
Anyway the movie started, trying to show Prakash Raj as a ruthless villain. Followed by hero's introduction fight, punch dialogues, potrayal of his abilities, the love and respect village people have in him, heroine introduction love @ first sight, heroine's attempt to grab hero's attention, the usual masala that we have seen till the first half. Though we are tired of it, the screenplay was a bit ok, which made it interesting. In between, Villain meets hero, hero trying to stay truthful to his job, gets trouble. What follows interval is a fast paced action bound cat and mouse game between hero and villain. Vivek comes in between, as usual tries few double meaning dialogues and goes away neither making an impression nor creating irritation.
Anushka, gets a little more than what usually heroines get in tamil movies, in the sense, she does get some opportunity to speak, act, try some comedies apart from songs, where of course there is enough opportunity to be a glam doll. Songs were not upto the mark, as DSP has once again, has remixed parts of his own old songs, which gives a feeling that we have heard the song already. Should appreciate DSP's observation that tamil people don't pay attention to hindi songs, but trying to use infamous ARR's celebrated "Paathsalaa" music from "Rang de basanti" as BGM for a fight sequence is idiotic.
Though it is the same masala, same story, several lines of punch dialogues at several places and useless songs, the fast screenplay makes the movie worth watching once.
Anyway the movie started, trying to show Prakash Raj as a ruthless villain. Followed by hero's introduction fight, punch dialogues, potrayal of his abilities, the love and respect village people have in him, heroine introduction love @ first sight, heroine's attempt to grab hero's attention, the usual masala that we have seen till the first half. Though we are tired of it, the screenplay was a bit ok, which made it interesting. In between, Villain meets hero, hero trying to stay truthful to his job, gets trouble. What follows interval is a fast paced action bound cat and mouse game between hero and villain. Vivek comes in between, as usual tries few double meaning dialogues and goes away neither making an impression nor creating irritation.
Anushka, gets a little more than what usually heroines get in tamil movies, in the sense, she does get some opportunity to speak, act, try some comedies apart from songs, where of course there is enough opportunity to be a glam doll. Songs were not upto the mark, as DSP has once again, has remixed parts of his own old songs, which gives a feeling that we have heard the song already. Should appreciate DSP's observation that tamil people don't pay attention to hindi songs, but trying to use infamous ARR's celebrated "Paathsalaa" music from "Rang de basanti" as BGM for a fight sequence is idiotic.
Though it is the same masala, same story, several lines of punch dialogues at several places and useless songs, the fast screenplay makes the movie worth watching once.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Murphy's Law at work #2
There are a few things which you have planned not to do but end up doing the same, due to fate or false decisions. Something like that happened last week :(
Last week, we had planned to see Irumbu kotai murattu singam. Had planned for the morning show. My friend did confirm that there are three shows, morning, matinee and evening. Night show was a different movie, he claimed. So we went for the morning show. Woke up early on a sunday morning, took bath and with a moderate breakfast (which used to be heavy on sundays) we went for the morning show. Everything went fine till we reached there. There was very little activity in the theater. Not much crowd. Finally we learnt that morning show is a different movie :(
All the pain taken to see the movie went in vain, still we didn't want to give up. Unfortunately, Sura was running in the nearby theater. After series of discussions, ended up seeing Sura :'(
When Sura got released, i decided not to see the movie in theater or even by downloading from somewhere in the internet.But last week, ended up seeing the movie :'( Sura lived up to the expectations, it was totally bad.
Sura broke the lovely break i had given to Vijay and Ajith movies, which do not have anything other than useless herioc dialogues and sentiments and wrong masala at the wrong place.
Last week, we had planned to see Irumbu kotai murattu singam. Had planned for the morning show. My friend did confirm that there are three shows, morning, matinee and evening. Night show was a different movie, he claimed. So we went for the morning show. Woke up early on a sunday morning, took bath and with a moderate breakfast (which used to be heavy on sundays) we went for the morning show. Everything went fine till we reached there. There was very little activity in the theater. Not much crowd. Finally we learnt that morning show is a different movie :(
All the pain taken to see the movie went in vain, still we didn't want to give up. Unfortunately, Sura was running in the nearby theater. After series of discussions, ended up seeing Sura :'(
When Sura got released, i decided not to see the movie in theater or even by downloading from somewhere in the internet.But last week, ended up seeing the movie :'( Sura lived up to the expectations, it was totally bad.
Sura broke the lovely break i had given to Vijay and Ajith movies, which do not have anything other than useless herioc dialogues and sentiments and wrong masala at the wrong place.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Murphy's Law at work
When things had to go wrong, they go wrong in all possible ways. It was a about a week back, when i was preparing as usual for the weekend trip home. Had tickets booked in Tatkal, and it was in WL 17. Packed everything and went to office as usual. The plan was if the ticket doesn't move, cancel the plan and get back home for a peaceful and lazy weekend.
When i reached office, got a call from a friend, checking whether i could get his return journey ticket booked by an agent and get that to native. Hoping that the tickets would move, i accepted. So that meant, whatever it is i will have to go home.
Was waiting for the tickets to move, checking the PNR status in web every now and then. Train was at 9.00PM, so expected the chart to be prepared by 5.00PM. Time tickled, 5.00, 5.30, 6.30, 7.00PM. Chart was not prepared. That was unusual, but it happened. Finally at 7.15PM, the chart was prepared, but my ticket status was at WL 12. Once again unusual, for a tatkal ticket to move just 5 seats :( So had to choose the last option, travel by BUS, go to hosur, salem and then to Madurai.
With that in mind, myself, Nirmal and his Brother started at around 7.45PM. It was fine when we started, but once we reached the bus stop to board the bus to bus stand, heavens opened up and to make matters worse we just had one umbrella. Before we got a bus, we were drenched. Finally we reached the bus stop to board bus to Hosur or Salem. And we met a huge crowd, who were waiting just like us. Rain had not stopped. There was enough crowd to fill three or four buses. We got one Hosur bus, and soon it became packed with space just to breath. The rain had reduced, and during the journey to Hosur, it had stopped. So felt relieved.
Reached Hosur around 10.30 i guess, and once again Rain was there to give us company and also the huge crowd, just like us waiting for Salem bus. The cool breeze made us shiver. No Salem bus was in sight and if there were it was fully crowded. When we were contemplating whether to return back to bangalore, we sighted a KSRTC bus to Kodaikanal. There were three sites available fortunately, but those were the seats behind the driver seat unfortunately. Still we boarded, and the ticket cost was 600, a bit more than 3 Tier AC ticket in train. And it goes only till Dindigul. Thanks to the superb road between Bangalore and Madurai, the journey was a little dreadful. Anyway all plans and positions to sleep ended in failure. At the end, reached Dindigul and boarded i reached home by morning 8.00 after 13 hours of arduous journey.
Though the journey was tiring and irritating, it felt fine to be at home. Wont be trying something like this again in the near future atleast i guess.
When i reached office, got a call from a friend, checking whether i could get his return journey ticket booked by an agent and get that to native. Hoping that the tickets would move, i accepted. So that meant, whatever it is i will have to go home.
Was waiting for the tickets to move, checking the PNR status in web every now and then. Train was at 9.00PM, so expected the chart to be prepared by 5.00PM. Time tickled, 5.00, 5.30, 6.30, 7.00PM. Chart was not prepared. That was unusual, but it happened. Finally at 7.15PM, the chart was prepared, but my ticket status was at WL 12. Once again unusual, for a tatkal ticket to move just 5 seats :( So had to choose the last option, travel by BUS, go to hosur, salem and then to Madurai.
With that in mind, myself, Nirmal and his Brother started at around 7.45PM. It was fine when we started, but once we reached the bus stop to board the bus to bus stand, heavens opened up and to make matters worse we just had one umbrella. Before we got a bus, we were drenched. Finally we reached the bus stop to board bus to Hosur or Salem. And we met a huge crowd, who were waiting just like us. Rain had not stopped. There was enough crowd to fill three or four buses. We got one Hosur bus, and soon it became packed with space just to breath. The rain had reduced, and during the journey to Hosur, it had stopped. So felt relieved.
Reached Hosur around 10.30 i guess, and once again Rain was there to give us company and also the huge crowd, just like us waiting for Salem bus. The cool breeze made us shiver. No Salem bus was in sight and if there were it was fully crowded. When we were contemplating whether to return back to bangalore, we sighted a KSRTC bus to Kodaikanal. There were three sites available fortunately, but those were the seats behind the driver seat unfortunately. Still we boarded, and the ticket cost was 600, a bit more than 3 Tier AC ticket in train. And it goes only till Dindigul. Thanks to the superb road between Bangalore and Madurai, the journey was a little dreadful. Anyway all plans and positions to sleep ended in failure. At the end, reached Dindigul and boarded i reached home by morning 8.00 after 13 hours of arduous journey.
Though the journey was tiring and irritating, it felt fine to be at home. Wont be trying something like this again in the near future atleast i guess.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
IPL III - CSK vs RCB
IPL III is beautifully poised, with five teams at 12 points after 12 matches. Lalit Modi should be a happy man, since his plan has worked out well. So it is going to be a tough fight from here. Leaving all those stuffs behind, IPL does provide some enjoyment. We had gone for the match here in Bangalore. As usual it was the CSK vs RCB match on March 23, and as usual, we were there as CSK supporters.
After a bit of delay, we got settled there. This time it was a lot different from IPL I. RCB was doing good and there were so many supporters for RCB. We were like an island surrounded by RCB supporters, tough task for us actually. And unfortunately, Dhoni was also missing in the match due to injury. Raina won the toss and called Bangalore to bat, the decision we were not happy with. We still follow the street cricket rules, the team winning the toss should bat first.
Anyway the match started with some CSK domination. CSK bowled well picked up quick wickets and match was in control til the 17th over. So till the 17th over, we got opportunity to shout and keep ourselves happy. After 17th over we were at the receiving end. RCB fans in the row behind us were shouting in our ears when Uthappa's shot cleared boundary line. But it was still interesting than sitting in home and watching the match alone.
We expected some fun in Chennai batting. Expectation that Hayden would fire, backfired as Hayden just kept switching between normal bat and mongoose bat. And Man of the match Bailey, showed his skill as very good test batsman. Thanks to Shyam, who came up with the idea of calling everything as "Idea batting", "Idea bowling", "Idea fielding" for all of CSK's mistakes. Back row, RCB fans, should have wondered what we are upto. We just wanted some entertainment :) Anyway after some time RRR was too high and wickets were falling. We knew, its time to leave and we left in the 15th over. Soon the celebration of the RCB fan, announced us the results. Thanks to whoever responsible for arranging all the BMTC buses, soon we caught a bus and went home, discussing whether IPL is fixed or not. And most important thing, White mischief, the cheer leaders of RCB were dancing a little away from us and it was good :P
This time the crowd included DP, Eric, Shyam, Musi and Myself. In IPL, we cant blame a team, because it is not in their hands. It doesn't matter how a team plays, when it is money that is actually playing. Lets see what Modi has in mind for CSK. My teammate's prediction was that CSK will reach semis, since both the semis are in Bangalore and CSK has some support here in Bangalore. Lets see how it gos.
After a bit of delay, we got settled there. This time it was a lot different from IPL I. RCB was doing good and there were so many supporters for RCB. We were like an island surrounded by RCB supporters, tough task for us actually. And unfortunately, Dhoni was also missing in the match due to injury. Raina won the toss and called Bangalore to bat, the decision we were not happy with. We still follow the street cricket rules, the team winning the toss should bat first.
Anyway the match started with some CSK domination. CSK bowled well picked up quick wickets and match was in control til the 17th over. So till the 17th over, we got opportunity to shout and keep ourselves happy. After 17th over we were at the receiving end. RCB fans in the row behind us were shouting in our ears when Uthappa's shot cleared boundary line. But it was still interesting than sitting in home and watching the match alone.
We expected some fun in Chennai batting. Expectation that Hayden would fire, backfired as Hayden just kept switching between normal bat and mongoose bat. And Man of the match Bailey, showed his skill as very good test batsman. Thanks to Shyam, who came up with the idea of calling everything as "Idea batting", "Idea bowling", "Idea fielding" for all of CSK's mistakes. Back row, RCB fans, should have wondered what we are upto. We just wanted some entertainment :) Anyway after some time RRR was too high and wickets were falling. We knew, its time to leave and we left in the 15th over. Soon the celebration of the RCB fan, announced us the results. Thanks to whoever responsible for arranging all the BMTC buses, soon we caught a bus and went home, discussing whether IPL is fixed or not. And most important thing, White mischief, the cheer leaders of RCB were dancing a little away from us and it was good :P
This time the crowd included DP, Eric, Shyam, Musi and Myself. In IPL, we cant blame a team, because it is not in their hands. It doesn't matter how a team plays, when it is money that is actually playing. Lets see what Modi has in mind for CSK. My teammate's prediction was that CSK will reach semis, since both the semis are in Bangalore and CSK has some support here in Bangalore. Lets see how it gos.
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