Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Thursday, November 01, 2012
Alive, in memories
Monday, September 03, 2012
"Screwed"
Personally, in my life, August is the month of fall :-) August is when i got my bike. After an year fell down for the first time, on August 4th, when my bike skidded off a muddy road. Escaped with a few scratches that time. This year, i was not all that lucky on August 21 :-)
A confused guy on the bike, decided to take a hard left from middle of the road.No indicators, no signals and no botheration about the traffic behind. Unfortunately, i was closely following him with a decent speed. Too close for even disk brakes to be of any use. Brakes, crash and i was on the road. Fortunate there were no other cars behind, unfortunate that i landed on my left knee, taking the full impact on it. I had followed all the traffic rules, except for the most basic one, expect idiots on Indian roads. Expecting people to adhere to traffic rules is a luxury that is not to be expected on Indian roads. I do see a lot of super geniuses daily who feel that the red signal is for the weak and stupid, and choose to ignore it.
Anyway the guy was little considerate, stopped and asked sorry repeatedly and asked whether i need a drop to home. I was feeling ok that time, so i picked up my bike and started home without help. The bike also didn't suffer any major damage except for a scratch on the body guard. Later realized, he had given me all the burden of his mistake with the apology. What started as a small pain in the knee, became a huge swelling. The trouble started with a night without sleep and in pain. Next day, went to the hospital and the x-ray revealed fracture in the knee cap. The only fix was screws and bolts and threads to fix them up. Sad part, I will have to spend considerable time in hospital, after so many years.
The operation happened a day after and the knee cap, patella was put on place using screws. It was fun to see how doctors and helpers prepare for an operation. They were relaxed, discussing about their vacation leaves, cracking jokes, just like how I start fixing a bug in the code. The guy being operated on was usually referred by the bone he has broken. So my name inside was patella :-) Learned that they do around ten to twelve operations daily most of which are result of bike accidents and quite serious.
The post operation effects were a matter of concern. But when you are in pain, all you have to do is look around. I was surrounded by people with even more serious injuries in the post operation care unit. To name a few, people with broken rib cage, broken hip, crushed leg bones, hips replaced etc etc. The guy with crushed rib cage was not able to swallow a tablet. The most horrible one was a twelve year old kid with amputated leg after a bike injury :( Half of them can be averted if people start paying a little respect to traffic rules, change lanes with little sense and try driving a little predictably.
Slowly recovering from the injury and the operation. It is going to take a few more weeks to get back to normal. Life moves on, may it is just a reminder that you can be shaken and broken in less than seconds :-)
A confused guy on the bike, decided to take a hard left from middle of the road.No indicators, no signals and no botheration about the traffic behind. Unfortunately, i was closely following him with a decent speed. Too close for even disk brakes to be of any use. Brakes, crash and i was on the road. Fortunate there were no other cars behind, unfortunate that i landed on my left knee, taking the full impact on it. I had followed all the traffic rules, except for the most basic one, expect idiots on Indian roads. Expecting people to adhere to traffic rules is a luxury that is not to be expected on Indian roads. I do see a lot of super geniuses daily who feel that the red signal is for the weak and stupid, and choose to ignore it.
Anyway the guy was little considerate, stopped and asked sorry repeatedly and asked whether i need a drop to home. I was feeling ok that time, so i picked up my bike and started home without help. The bike also didn't suffer any major damage except for a scratch on the body guard. Later realized, he had given me all the burden of his mistake with the apology. What started as a small pain in the knee, became a huge swelling. The trouble started with a night without sleep and in pain. Next day, went to the hospital and the x-ray revealed fracture in the knee cap. The only fix was screws and bolts and threads to fix them up. Sad part, I will have to spend considerable time in hospital, after so many years.
The operation happened a day after and the knee cap, patella was put on place using screws. It was fun to see how doctors and helpers prepare for an operation. They were relaxed, discussing about their vacation leaves, cracking jokes, just like how I start fixing a bug in the code. The guy being operated on was usually referred by the bone he has broken. So my name inside was patella :-) Learned that they do around ten to twelve operations daily most of which are result of bike accidents and quite serious.
The post operation effects were a matter of concern. But when you are in pain, all you have to do is look around. I was surrounded by people with even more serious injuries in the post operation care unit. To name a few, people with broken rib cage, broken hip, crushed leg bones, hips replaced etc etc. The guy with crushed rib cage was not able to swallow a tablet. The most horrible one was a twelve year old kid with amputated leg after a bike injury :( Half of them can be averted if people start paying a little respect to traffic rules, change lanes with little sense and try driving a little predictably.
Slowly recovering from the injury and the operation. It is going to take a few more weeks to get back to normal. Life moves on, may it is just a reminder that you can be shaken and broken in less than seconds :-)
Thursday, November 17, 2011
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.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Mullayanagiri Trek
After two year, around the same time, we were there again with the same goal, to complete the Mullayanagiri - Bababudangiri - Kemmangundi trek. Started the planning with 6 people and the count suddenly soar to 17 in the middle with Eric anna and his old HCL team pitching in, finally we were 15. Tickets booked, tents arranged from BMC, foods stuffed in backpacks we were ready on friday night. Weather report said, 30% chance of storm on friday, saturday and Sunday, we decided to try our luck on the remaining 70% - optimism :-) Few stuffs like Western ghats, south west monsoon, windward side, lee ward side which i had learnt in geography lingered in my mind for a while, but the trip was on.
Reached chickmagalur @ 4.45AM, checked into a small hotel (selection lodge), paid 850 for two rooms and we were ready for the trek at around 7.30AM. Booked a jeep for 700Rs to drop us @ Sarpadhari, the starting point of the trek. Additional Info: there is also private bus available next to chickmagalur bus stand, and it starts at 8.00AM.
Start of the trek: After around an hour journey reached Sarpadhari and around 8.30AM. As we had expected, he was waiting for us. The moment we stepped out of the jeep, it rained :-) Undetterred we started the Mullayanagiri ascent from Sarpadhari (sarpa - snake, dhari - path). The rain was brief but enough to make the path slippery. The ascent turned out to be pretty tough and drained a lot of energy. Remember the sleeping bags, tents and food items which added to the weight. Thanks to the rain, We were soon engulfed in mist. Beautiful green grass, misty white backgroun, cool breeze and soft drizzle. What else do you need. It was fantastic. Better felt, than explained.
Anyway the trek to the Mullayanagiri peak sucked a lot of time. Fortunate we didn't have leeches to suck blood too. Atleast we didn't care about them. At around 11.45 to 12.00AM we reached the peak. Explored the two caves a bit, recharged with a bit of snacks and started the next part. The walk to BSNL tower.
The Confusion: From mullayanagir, finding the path that would lead to BB Hills became a tough task. Tried my phone GPS, explored a few paths it didn't help. Map reader, Sai tried with his compass and map, but we were stuck for a while. Discussions started, should we continue was the question ? It just reminded me about the last trip to Kemmangundi, where we climbed a peak, and when the discussion started and the trek was aborted. Thanks to Mani(HCL), he found a path and started exploring. I ran behind him. We explored for a while, and walked a few KMs and found there does exist a neat and clean path. Met a few BMC guys, who were stuck too. Told them about the path and came back to our gang. And the trek started again.
The Trek Continues: So we started the trek again at around 12.55PM. We started walking towards Attigundi. The path was neat and clean, and the trek was not at all difficult, when compared to the Mullayanagiri ascent from Sarpadhari. Enchanting views through out the path. The path continued to play hide and seek with the help of mist, but it was not tough to stay on the path. Around 1.30PM we were reminded about the Sun, and that gave us the opportunity to see the beautiful ridge in the front. The ridge is the next part to be covered to reach BB Hills. After around 30 minutes we reached the police checkpost, ending the first part of trek and the ridge in the front to be covered after lunch. Time was around 2.20PM
The Interruption: We were having lunch, when a forest officer met us with a smile. We had met him at Mullayanagiri peak, where he had given us some suggestions. Interacting we came to know that, we still have around 4hrs to cover (if we walked fast). And if it rains we would be stranded in the ridge, where we cannot camp too. So he suggested going to BB hills and camping there or booking a room there. With that he left, and rain arrived. So we decided to try our luck at BB hills. With the help of few forest gaurds, booked a jeep to BB hills. The forest gaurds were very very helpful. The jeep journey was fun, as i got an opportunity to travel, standing on the jeep steps and hanging to the back of the jeep. A wise decision, as the torrential rain would have wrecked havoc, if we had continued with the trek.
End of Trek: When we reached BB Hills, it was raining cats and dogs. The option of camping out, was ruled out. After some heavy lunch at a local hotel, looked for a room. Rooms were horrible. So decided to get back to chickmagalur to decide. Going back to Kemmangundi again next day, didn't sound like a good option, so booked KSRTC tickets to bangalore. It was at chickmagalur i discovered a leech has managed to suck good amount of my blood. Can only wonder at the way they manage to suck blood without pain.
Though the trek ended, it was satisfactory when compared to the previous one. But still the place continues to amaze me. Should plan for the next trek to this place soon after the monsoon ends.
Reached chickmagalur @ 4.45AM, checked into a small hotel (selection lodge), paid 850 for two rooms and we were ready for the trek at around 7.30AM. Booked a jeep for 700Rs to drop us @ Sarpadhari, the starting point of the trek. Additional Info: there is also private bus available next to chickmagalur bus stand, and it starts at 8.00AM.
Start of the trek: After around an hour journey reached Sarpadhari and around 8.30AM. As we had expected, he was waiting for us. The moment we stepped out of the jeep, it rained :-) Undetterred we started the Mullayanagiri ascent from Sarpadhari (sarpa - snake, dhari - path). The rain was brief but enough to make the path slippery. The ascent turned out to be pretty tough and drained a lot of energy. Remember the sleeping bags, tents and food items which added to the weight. Thanks to the rain, We were soon engulfed in mist. Beautiful green grass, misty white backgroun, cool breeze and soft drizzle. What else do you need. It was fantastic. Better felt, than explained.
Anyway the trek to the Mullayanagiri peak sucked a lot of time. Fortunate we didn't have leeches to suck blood too. Atleast we didn't care about them. At around 11.45 to 12.00AM we reached the peak. Explored the two caves a bit, recharged with a bit of snacks and started the next part. The walk to BSNL tower.
The Confusion: From mullayanagir, finding the path that would lead to BB Hills became a tough task. Tried my phone GPS, explored a few paths it didn't help. Map reader, Sai tried with his compass and map, but we were stuck for a while. Discussions started, should we continue was the question ? It just reminded me about the last trip to Kemmangundi, where we climbed a peak, and when the discussion started and the trek was aborted. Thanks to Mani(HCL), he found a path and started exploring. I ran behind him. We explored for a while, and walked a few KMs and found there does exist a neat and clean path. Met a few BMC guys, who were stuck too. Told them about the path and came back to our gang. And the trek started again.
The Trek Continues: So we started the trek again at around 12.55PM. We started walking towards Attigundi. The path was neat and clean, and the trek was not at all difficult, when compared to the Mullayanagiri ascent from Sarpadhari. Enchanting views through out the path. The path continued to play hide and seek with the help of mist, but it was not tough to stay on the path. Around 1.30PM we were reminded about the Sun, and that gave us the opportunity to see the beautiful ridge in the front. The ridge is the next part to be covered to reach BB Hills. After around 30 minutes we reached the police checkpost, ending the first part of trek and the ridge in the front to be covered after lunch. Time was around 2.20PM
The Interruption: We were having lunch, when a forest officer met us with a smile. We had met him at Mullayanagiri peak, where he had given us some suggestions. Interacting we came to know that, we still have around 4hrs to cover (if we walked fast). And if it rains we would be stranded in the ridge, where we cannot camp too. So he suggested going to BB hills and camping there or booking a room there. With that he left, and rain arrived. So we decided to try our luck at BB hills. With the help of few forest gaurds, booked a jeep to BB hills. The forest gaurds were very very helpful. The jeep journey was fun, as i got an opportunity to travel, standing on the jeep steps and hanging to the back of the jeep. A wise decision, as the torrential rain would have wrecked havoc, if we had continued with the trek.
End of Trek: When we reached BB Hills, it was raining cats and dogs. The option of camping out, was ruled out. After some heavy lunch at a local hotel, looked for a room. Rooms were horrible. So decided to get back to chickmagalur to decide. Going back to Kemmangundi again next day, didn't sound like a good option, so booked KSRTC tickets to bangalore. It was at chickmagalur i discovered a leech has managed to suck good amount of my blood. Can only wonder at the way they manage to suck blood without pain.
Though the trek ended, it was satisfactory when compared to the previous one. But still the place continues to amaze me. Should plan for the next trek to this place soon after the monsoon ends.
Photos @ https://picasaweb.google.com/sskganesan/MullayanagiriTrek#
Monday, June 20, 2011
Its over
Its over, after four good months.. started eating non veg again with my moms special, fish curry. nobody to blame and no reason to contemplate. Just that its over.
But I did like this four months. It was great. The first month was tough. Chicken and fish danced in front of me and I did find it difficult to keep my hands off them. Adding to these were few treats in barbecue nation and malgudi, my favorite hunting grounds. I stayed on. After that it was a cake walk. Staying veg was not difficult. The difficult part was answering the world. What, why, when etc etc.
So why did I end it ? Well I am not going to answer that. Just that, its over. I will start it again, but don't expect any announcements :)
Looks like will need illaiyaraja's help to sleep tonight. Will have to try from now on. Bye.
But I did like this four months. It was great. The first month was tough. Chicken and fish danced in front of me and I did find it difficult to keep my hands off them. Adding to these were few treats in barbecue nation and malgudi, my favorite hunting grounds. I stayed on. After that it was a cake walk. Staying veg was not difficult. The difficult part was answering the world. What, why, when etc etc.
So why did I end it ? Well I am not going to answer that. Just that, its over. I will start it again, but don't expect any announcements :)
Looks like will need illaiyaraja's help to sleep tonight. Will have to try from now on. Bye.
Friday, November 19, 2010
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.
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.
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.
Friday, December 04, 2009
A short Break
An unintended short break from Blogging. Not that i am totally occupied with work. At the same time, i am not totally free too to think about something and blog about it. Is twitter a reason. Yes think so. If not for twitter, i might have tried posting about few social or personal happenings.
Anyway, the habit of blogging helped me a little last weekend. I was fighting with a bank, regarding Credit card fee blah blah blah. Had been sending them a series of mails and i was getting a number of junk replies. Was really pissed off with them. So wanted to send out a mail, containing all the information, the dates when i had called, when they had called me etc etc. If it was an actress birthday or movie release date, i might have remembered something. But dates of call, was something that i never paid attention to. Fortunately when i had received the call, i was in theater, about to watch "Unnai Pol Oruvan" and i had blogged about it. So visited my blog, got the info, mailed them with the exact date. I did see some positive response and action after that mail. Blog is in a way acting as a tool to immortalize the feelings and happenings. So I am determined to blog about significant, unsignificant, rubbish, repeated stuffs. My determintations and resolutions are volatile, lets see how this goes.
Anyway, the habit of blogging helped me a little last weekend. I was fighting with a bank, regarding Credit card fee blah blah blah. Had been sending them a series of mails and i was getting a number of junk replies. Was really pissed off with them. So wanted to send out a mail, containing all the information, the dates when i had called, when they had called me etc etc. If it was an actress birthday or movie release date, i might have remembered something. But dates of call, was something that i never paid attention to. Fortunately when i had received the call, i was in theater, about to watch "Unnai Pol Oruvan" and i had blogged about it. So visited my blog, got the info, mailed them with the exact date. I did see some positive response and action after that mail. Blog is in a way acting as a tool to immortalize the feelings and happenings. So I am determined to blog about significant, unsignificant, rubbish, repeated stuffs. My determintations and resolutions are volatile, lets see how this goes.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
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#
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#
Thursday, April 02, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Malpe, St.Mary's Island and Udupi Trip
After a lot of confusions, and lengthy discussions, and around 300 mail discussions we decided upon Malpe, St. Mary's and udupi. Started from Bangalore on friday night for the first time with a group of 12. After a sleepless journey, reached kudremukh early in the morning when sleep was about to conquer us. The scenary brought us back to our senses but soon we lost ourself in the virgin beauty of mother nature. We could see green tea plantation on one side and a pool of cloud on the other side. The whole journey through kudremukh was like that but we missed a bit of it because of the tablet that was taken to get rid of the vomitting sensation managed to successfully put us into sleep. Could not avoid taking the tablet, since the sleepless night journey combined with sharp turns in the ghats did a lot of damage.
Finally woke up at Udupi where we booked a room in a decent hotel. First visit was to St. Mary's Island near Malpe beach which is famous for basalt rock deposits which look like hexagonal cylinders. From Malpe the isle can be reached by ferry. The island is small and secluded and the serenity is disturbed only by the noisy tourists like us. We had a good bath there in the sea waterddddd. The waves seems to love visitors and When the waves recede they try to take you away with them. After a long time i had opportunity to take bath in sea like that. After spending one hour there we returned back to malpe and went to have lunch. We tried fish there but it did not meet our expectations.
Next halt was at Maravanthe beach to see the sunset. Once again there was little human activity in the beach, which meant it was time for some football action. Next one hour was devoted to football. As usual it turned out to be interesting. End result: Arsenal beat Manu 5-3. Funny, anyway thats how we named the teams. I contributed two goals to the winning side :) One hour of football was too much for people like who rarely involve in physical activities. After the sunset, we went back to hotel after having dinner at Udupi.
Next day i.e sunday, we went to the world famous Udupi Krishnan temple. The architecture looked different. It has a history associated with it which i am not aware of. Anyway after visiting the temple, started to Kaup beach. Kaup was not an exception, and there was not much human inhabitation except for tourists and couples who donot want to be disturbed. It remained comparatively clean. We could not visit the Kaup lighthouse since it is opened only between 4 to 7 in the evening. Around six of our people started playing volleyball, we resorted to cricket with plastic bat and ball. One good thing about cricket is that you can convert any available wood to stumps and bat. Only thing you need is a ball, but we have also played cricket with something that looks like a ball :) This time, we had a plastic bat and a plastic ball, and water battle served as the stump with cap serving as bails. Still it was good.
We decided to go to kodachadri after that, but decided against while on the way to kodachadri. Thoughts about office next days always disturbs and the same thoughts managed to reconsider our decision. Soon we decided against since we might not have enough time to go to kodachadri and return back. So we restricted ourselves to a visit to River Tunga at Teerthahalli and came back to Bangalore. Once again it turned out to be a fun filled trip as it is always. Digi cams gave us the liberty of clicking everything that we thought would be good. People looked a lot generous while taking pictures, and here are the links,
http://picasaweb.google.com/sens2003/MalpeTrip#
http://picasaweb.google.com/kpraveen85/Malpe#
http://picasaweb.google.com/rajesh.kalaivanan/MalpeStMarysIslandMaravanthae#
Finally woke up at Udupi where we booked a room in a decent hotel. First visit was to St. Mary's Island near Malpe beach which is famous for basalt rock deposits which look like hexagonal cylinders. From Malpe the isle can be reached by ferry. The island is small and secluded and the serenity is disturbed only by the noisy tourists like us. We had a good bath there in the sea waterddddd. The waves seems to love visitors and When the waves recede they try to take you away with them. After a long time i had opportunity to take bath in sea like that. After spending one hour there we returned back to malpe and went to have lunch. We tried fish there but it did not meet our expectations.
Next halt was at Maravanthe beach to see the sunset. Once again there was little human activity in the beach, which meant it was time for some football action. Next one hour was devoted to football. As usual it turned out to be interesting. End result: Arsenal beat Manu 5-3. Funny, anyway thats how we named the teams. I contributed two goals to the winning side :) One hour of football was too much for people like who rarely involve in physical activities. After the sunset, we went back to hotel after having dinner at Udupi.
Next day i.e sunday, we went to the world famous Udupi Krishnan temple. The architecture looked different. It has a history associated with it which i am not aware of. Anyway after visiting the temple, started to Kaup beach. Kaup was not an exception, and there was not much human inhabitation except for tourists and couples who donot want to be disturbed. It remained comparatively clean. We could not visit the Kaup lighthouse since it is opened only between 4 to 7 in the evening. Around six of our people started playing volleyball, we resorted to cricket with plastic bat and ball. One good thing about cricket is that you can convert any available wood to stumps and bat. Only thing you need is a ball, but we have also played cricket with something that looks like a ball :) This time, we had a plastic bat and a plastic ball, and water battle served as the stump with cap serving as bails. Still it was good.
We decided to go to kodachadri after that, but decided against while on the way to kodachadri. Thoughts about office next days always disturbs and the same thoughts managed to reconsider our decision. Soon we decided against since we might not have enough time to go to kodachadri and return back. So we restricted ourselves to a visit to River Tunga at Teerthahalli and came back to Bangalore. Once again it turned out to be a fun filled trip as it is always. Digi cams gave us the liberty of clicking everything that we thought would be good. People looked a lot generous while taking pictures, and here are the links,
http://picasaweb.google.com/sens2003/MalpeTrip#
http://picasaweb.google.com/kpraveen85/Malpe#
http://picasaweb.google.com/rajesh.kalaivanan/MalpeStMarysIslandMaravanthae#
Friday, January 30, 2009
Licensed to Drive
Got my four wheeler driving license at last after months of self imposed delays.It came as a birthday present as i chose that date for taking the test. Experiences in the RTO office was the same in the past, and it has not changed now, hope it changes atleast in the future. If you don't go via a broker or Agent, you will never be able to get what you want in a day. Though there are boards advising not to go via agents, it falls on the deaf ears of the employees and also the people. Though there are counters, there is absolutely no information about the steps you need to follow. Agents and the employees seem to be reaping rich.
Hope situation changes. Anyway i think i will not be stepping into RTO office for another 15 years.
Hope situation changes. Anyway i think i will not be stepping into RTO office for another 15 years.
Monday, January 05, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Side(u) Middle(u) Berth(u)
That day the train was on time for a change. Myself and Musi got into the S8 coach without wasting time. For some reason we often get seats in S8 and lot of interesting incidents happen whenever weravel in S8. The first reaction once we got into the coach was a sign of relief. The coach did not have a side middle berth. This side middle berth seems to be a ingenious idea of a sincere government servant. On the first sight the concept looked quite ok to me. Side middle Berth meant more seats to lie down and dream for the entire night. But thats the only thing you can do, if you get up a little
fast from your sleep, you will end up banging your head on the side upper berth. The most haunting part is the way in which thereservations are made and how the seats are allocated. The way in which seats are allocated is based on the old algorithm based on 72 seats per coach, so once you board it is just confusion with all people in coach proposing their own ideas on how seats are allocated. To confuse this further you have two numbers written near every seat. The confusion will continue till the TTE arrives. One TTE preferred not to do that and we were forced to sleep on the side berths, which in no way is convenient taking the height factor into consideration.
So that explains why we were happy on seeing the missing SMB. We made ourselves comfortable and started our discussion that ranges from modern day Asin to historic Kundavai. But that did not last long, soon we were disturbed by few people who claimed the seats belonged to them. Soon there were around four people checking the tickets. Everything looked perfect, except for the date of journey. We had reserved seats in S8 for the return journey. For the onward trip it was on S5. Once we realised that we were wrong, we did not stay there for more than one second. Ignoring the smiling faces we walked away and never turned back.
S5 was in utter chaos, the reason was the SMB and two set of numbers written near every seat. Grrrrr once again there were theories floating around. Atlast TTE came around 11.00 and claimed that there is no change in the seating arrangements. The side middle berth is not to be used, which means the old numbering will be followed. But the confusion did not end, as people who boarded at the next station in the middle of the night had no other option other than waking up the people who are lost in dreams.
The final decision still remains unclear, will it continue to be like this, will it be discontinued. Hope government officials resolve it soon.
fast from your sleep, you will end up banging your head on the side upper berth. The most haunting part is the way in which thereservations are made and how the seats are allocated. The way in which seats are allocated is based on the old algorithm based on 72 seats per coach, so once you board it is just confusion with all people in coach proposing their own ideas on how seats are allocated. To confuse this further you have two numbers written near every seat. The confusion will continue till the TTE arrives. One TTE preferred not to do that and we were forced to sleep on the side berths, which in no way is convenient taking the height factor into consideration.
So that explains why we were happy on seeing the missing SMB. We made ourselves comfortable and started our discussion that ranges from modern day Asin to historic Kundavai. But that did not last long, soon we were disturbed by few people who claimed the seats belonged to them. Soon there were around four people checking the tickets. Everything looked perfect, except for the date of journey. We had reserved seats in S8 for the return journey. For the onward trip it was on S5. Once we realised that we were wrong, we did not stay there for more than one second. Ignoring the smiling faces we walked away and never turned back.
S5 was in utter chaos, the reason was the SMB and two set of numbers written near every seat. Grrrrr once again there were theories floating around. Atlast TTE came around 11.00 and claimed that there is no change in the seating arrangements. The side middle berth is not to be used, which means the old numbering will be followed. But the confusion did not end, as people who boarded at the next station in the middle of the night had no other option other than waking up the people who are lost in dreams.
The final decision still remains unclear, will it continue to be like this, will it be discontinued. Hope government officials resolve it soon.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Trichy Trip
Had gone to trichy two weeks back to attend see Senthil reluctantly putting an end to his Bachelor life but willingly stepping into the role of a family man. Finally found time today to blog about it. As usual, the preparations for the trip started a long time back, even the marriage preparations might not have happened at that time. And as usual after lot of discussions we decided on starting on saturday morning to Trichy. After a long time i enjoyed a bumpy ride in our normal TNSTC bus with attention oscillating between the "Sivagamiyin Sabatham" and the movies that were played in the bus. Conductor made sure that nobody slept in the bus and played the movie in full volume.
Reached Salem at 3.15 and from there started to Trichy. After a bit of reading, a little of discussion the tiring bus journey came to an end and we were at Trichy. From then started that eating spree. The marriage was grand, and food was just great. For two days every inch of space in the stomach remained occupied.
We did not have enough time to visit the temples around Trichy. When the initial plan was made, we had the plans of visiting all temples but once we started the trip we knew . Fortunately with help of Praveen we were able to visit kallanai and thiruverumbur temple. The recent rains have helped cauvery to cause enough damage to the nearby villages and we could see that on the way to kallanai or Grand anaicut, the dam built by Karikaala Chozhan before 2000 years. Due to the recent floods, water was diverted to Kollidam. The water gushing out of the opened shutters with great force creating a pattern and giving a illusion of standing in a ship was a wonderful sight. After visit to Thiruverumbur, we returned back to Bangalore pledging to return back to Trichy to visit the places we had missed this time. After reading Kalki's book the curiosity to visit the temples has increased a lot. Lets see how the plans go.
Reached Salem at 3.15 and from there started to Trichy. After a bit of reading, a little of discussion the tiring bus journey came to an end and we were at Trichy. From then started that eating spree. The marriage was grand, and food was just great. For two days every inch of space in the stomach remained occupied.
We did not have enough time to visit the temples around Trichy. When the initial plan was made, we had the plans of visiting all temples but once we started the trip we knew . Fortunately with help of Praveen we were able to visit kallanai and thiruverumbur temple. The recent rains have helped cauvery to cause enough damage to the nearby villages and we could see that on the way to kallanai or Grand anaicut, the dam built by Karikaala Chozhan before 2000 years. Due to the recent floods, water was diverted to Kollidam. The water gushing out of the opened shutters with great force creating a pattern and giving a illusion of standing in a ship was a wonderful sight. After visit to Thiruverumbur, we returned back to Bangalore pledging to return back to Trichy to visit the places we had missed this time. After reading Kalki's book the curiosity to visit the temples has increased a lot. Lets see how the plans go.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Home made office lunch
Inspite of the recession, customer escalations & annoying managers one thing that is to be appreciated about the software companies is, they always come up with something for the engineers to sway away from the work a little. Though most of them turn out to be favorites of management which they claim is good and voluntarily force you to enjoy, sometimes we do enjoy it. One such event happened in our office last week. Last friday we had a section cook off. Every team member was made to bring some home made food and a grand buffet was arranged in office. Not so sure how much one needs to spend to get a buffet like that. As far as bachelors like me, we had taken our empty stomach and participated only in eating. Anyway, it turned out to be a great event. There was almost all items that i could think off. To name a few, chicken briyani, chicken roast, chicken curry, egg masala, vegetable briyani, fried rice, aloo parota, chapathi, dahi vada, coconut rice, gulab jamun, carrot halwa, curd rice etc etc. For a guy who feeds on hotel food daily they all tasted delicious and i did not leave any item untasted. For the first time i ate food in office allured me. Thought it needs to be remembered, so there goes the post.
What followed that is two customer escalations, which forced me to work from dawn to dusk in the weekend :( but that is a different story better when not thought about.
What followed that is two customer escalations, which forced me to work from dawn to dusk in the weekend :( but that is a different story better when not thought about.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
BMTC bus journey
Yet another incident happened yesterday as usual in BMTC. For me a lot happens in BMTC. Yesterday i gave the conductor 20 Rs and asked for three tickets. He gave the right change of 5 Rs. I was waiting for him to give the ticket, he saw us for a moment and decided against it. Just a glance was enough for him to confirm that we are not locals and he has an opportunity to earn 15 Rs. Anyway yesterday i was in a pugnacious mood, and did not want to leave the matter just like that. If i was alone i would not have done anything certainly. Since i had the company of two of my friends, we decided to give it a try. But he was prepared for it. When we went and asked for the ticket, using the only known local word "Ticket Kodi" :) He just turned his face away and kept silent and did not even bother to see us. Wondering how BMTC manages to run in profit. If we had known the local language, we could have tried a little more but even after one year, it is still difficult to pickup the local language :( and it is affecting a lot. Anyway i will get an opportunity to see the conductor again i guess, lets see whether i can do something that time.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
One year of corporate and bachelor life
A long unintended break from blogging. Had been thinking about what to blog for a long time and later realized that i had completed one year in the software industry on June. Not much has happened over the past one year and life is becoming more and more monotonous. Wake up at 8.00, go to office work till night and sleep has been the daily routine. Anyway few things have changed over the past one year. Had dreams about the software engineer life but after one year of reading and modifying huge well written code base, it is now difficult to write even small programs from the scratch. After using wrapper functions for almost everthying now it is difficult to remember the return values of normal c functions. Even if the tea is horrible life does not move without two tea breaks a day. Bachelor life is teaching a lot of lessons. From a guy who hates idli, it has transformed me into someone who is searching for good idli shops around the city. Stay awake late in the night for no reason staring at the monitor in front of me checking orkut or refreshing google reader.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
IPL T20
Yesterday i was there at the chinnaswami stadium to see the IPL T20 match between chennai super kings and Bangalore Royal Challengers as a supporter of the mighty super kings. This is the first national or international i witnessed from the ground. Inside the stadium it was sweating and the view was not that great as that of what you see in television. But those are the only negatives which will vanish when you take the fun factor into account. IPL T20 was a visual treat. Sixes, fours, missed catches, runouts, music and cheerleaders and all in four hours was too great.
We were there in the stadium at 6.00 and were able to see the players practising. Though most of the players were practising seriously Makhaya Ntini and Muralitharan responded to shouts of the fans. After a while the Washington Redskins, cheer leaders of Bangalore Royal challengers, lit up the atmosphere with their presence. They did attract a lot of attention of the crowd. The chennai cheer leaders preferred to stay away from the attention and walked silently to their places. We were also able to catch a glimpse of the Kollywood and Sandalwood heroine and Bangalore Royal challenger's brand ambassador "Kuthu Ramya" (as she is called in kollywood). The crowd wave started and continued for a long time.
Once the match started it was pure fun. When Dale Steyn bowled the first over, he did reduce our hopes. The same happened when Hayden and Parthiv Patel returned to pavillion. Once Hussey and Dhoni joined and when the partnership started flourishing, it was fun. When Dhonis started bombarding the stands with his huge six, none of us were in the seat. Though we, the chennai super kings supporters were outnumbered by the Bangalore Royal challenger's supporters, we had more opportunities to celebrate and we used it fully. Sports brings unity, yeah it was true, soon the chennai supporters were united and responded to shouts and comments of different groups in the stand. Drums sivamani beats took us to TN.
The Bangalore Royal challengers started their batting in style, and looked formidable untill they started losing wickets. Till that the fun was with the Bangalore supporters, they were shouting "Jeetaegaa Jeetaegaa, Bangalore Jeetaegaa". Once the wickets started falling it was for us to enjoy. With Sap leading the group, the chants continued in the local language, which most of the people might not have understood. To mention a few,
"Atho paaru lightu, Chennai na weightu"
"Gummathalakadi Gummavaa, Chennai na summava"
"Sala pula sala pula, gummthalaka" and the famour "O".
Throats dried up, Legs ached because of dancing but nobody was willing to let tiredness take away the opportunities of enjoyment and the celebration continued. When super kings won eventually we erupted in joy. It was Royal challengers match gifted by them to Chennai superkings. Anyway once the match ended, we reached home safely in auto fully satisfied of viewing a fantastic match. Anyway that kindled a small desire in the corner of heart, should witness atleast one India-Pakistan match in Chennai.
We were there in the stadium at 6.00 and were able to see the players practising. Though most of the players were practising seriously Makhaya Ntini and Muralitharan responded to shouts of the fans. After a while the Washington Redskins, cheer leaders of Bangalore Royal challengers, lit up the atmosphere with their presence. They did attract a lot of attention of the crowd. The chennai cheer leaders preferred to stay away from the attention and walked silently to their places. We were also able to catch a glimpse of the Kollywood and Sandalwood heroine and Bangalore Royal challenger's brand ambassador "Kuthu Ramya" (as she is called in kollywood). The crowd wave started and continued for a long time.
Once the match started it was pure fun. When Dale Steyn bowled the first over, he did reduce our hopes. The same happened when Hayden and Parthiv Patel returned to pavillion. Once Hussey and Dhoni joined and when the partnership started flourishing, it was fun. When Dhonis started bombarding the stands with his huge six, none of us were in the seat. Though we, the chennai super kings supporters were outnumbered by the Bangalore Royal challenger's supporters, we had more opportunities to celebrate and we used it fully. Sports brings unity, yeah it was true, soon the chennai supporters were united and responded to shouts and comments of different groups in the stand. Drums sivamani beats took us to TN.
The Bangalore Royal challengers started their batting in style, and looked formidable untill they started losing wickets. Till that the fun was with the Bangalore supporters, they were shouting "Jeetaegaa Jeetaegaa, Bangalore Jeetaegaa". Once the wickets started falling it was for us to enjoy. With Sap leading the group, the chants continued in the local language, which most of the people might not have understood. To mention a few,
"Atho paaru lightu, Chennai na weightu"
"Gummathalakadi Gummavaa, Chennai na summava"
"Sala pula sala pula, gummthalaka" and the famour "O".
Throats dried up, Legs ached because of dancing but nobody was willing to let tiredness take away the opportunities of enjoyment and the celebration continued. When super kings won eventually we erupted in joy. It was Royal challengers match gifted by them to Chennai superkings. Anyway once the match ended, we reached home safely in auto fully satisfied of viewing a fantastic match. Anyway that kindled a small desire in the corner of heart, should witness atleast one India-Pakistan match in Chennai.
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