Mysuru trip 2020

After many discussions and calls, we had also worried about the location. Later we all decided to go to Nimishamba temple and Ranganathaswamy temple . Also cheluvanarayana swamy temple and Ranganathittu Bird sanctuary.

My wife Jyoti and friend Teju suggested Belum caves in Gandikota. Vidya suggested Bhimeswari temple and hogenakkal as destination. Madhusudan , Vidya's husband suggested the place is not as good due to non-veg food items available over there and even we didnt like it. Moreover, its 105 km - 2 hour journey . My wife Jyoti had already visited there . Later, they kept on playing with me and my emotions whethter Male Madeshwar betta . There was a stage when all decided to follow up and Teju  , the one who initiated the trip had to drop the plan because Vidya communicated us that she can't leave her mom alone and join us for the trip. Jyoti said that she would plan and finally decided to done with the trip and plan Vanavasi trip . Later, I called Ganga and discussed whats the plan when they mentioned about Srirangattana, Ranganathittu and Nimishamba temple. Eventually, Madhusudan ( Madhu) decided to book the vehicle as the taxi drivers were close to his home .

We visited Ranganathittu bird sanctuary, spent nice time boating, watching birds, strolling in the campus etc. Later , at Balamuri, we went and paid parking fees but there was no place for us to even have swim. I told lets move and play at Yedmuri falls . At balamuri, we ate nice bhelpuri which was tasty and satisfying.  It was less crowded unlike balamuri falls. Later, we had late lunch on the way to KRS . After soul-wrenching show at krishna raja sagara dam , we decided to move back to Bengaluru. 

Visit to Cauvery Gurukula

After a long gap , I was motivated to spend a Sunday near Karnataka's prestige.
Fellow friends invited us to the weekend getaway , specially to learn the eco-friendly activites undertaken. We set out early morning to visit Cauvery Gurukula. It is located after Srirangapatna city. We took a bus from Satellite Bus stand and reached their by 11 am.

Reputed scientist shared his life experiences as well as  walked us around the farms to see the produce. We got a chance to relish the sattvic food prepared in the Gurukula. Along with that, we also played along the pristine waters of river Cauvery . The Gurukula also has a college such that the underprivileged kids across the state study there. It's fantastic experience to see natural hotspots are being developed to preserve and nourish.

A weekend trip to Golden Temple , Vellore

Plans to Tirupati trip ended abruptly, but never knew destiny had plans of Golden Temple , Vellore for the weekend , not just for me but for the fun-loving gang of my workgroup . Something never even planned but something cannot be denied with a group who are ever-ready to live every single moment ! Times have changed, we had to plan for a trip a month before in college and now, a lunch break is enough to plan a trip anywhere . :)
Early morning on a weekend , we were supposed to be at Madhu, Nari and Dass's flat. It is central location for any plans which we make , and its more than a palace where the high-profile conglomeration happens . I am referring in lines of G-8 , G-20 and G-... You can add any no of persons to be part and there is a place here for them . I kept an alarm at sharp 6 and woke up unreluctantly . By now, you have realised I wake up on trip days at scheduled time , so no need to boast this from now on . Krishna called up at regular intervals to me and Raja so that we are there on time when he comes to receive in his chariot, sorry his car . Ofcourse I was on time here too , but Raja came 15 min later. But this was good time for us to sit in a car and view the early morning scene near Old-Airport Road. I wonder so many people jog early morning, instead of sleeping cosily on a Saturday morning ! Newspaper vendors , BMTC buses , milk valahs... the world is already fired up so early , and I never realise the beauty of these things if there are no w eekend trips. I guess you all agree , right ?
We reached the central point around 7.45 . Already late , but there were many late-latifs than us so we had a chance to grab a hot cup of tea nearby . Naveen, Hemant and Yugandhra were on time, but an uninvited accident delayed Uma's arrival by 30 min more. The group was already hungry and we left finally on a journey sharply at 8.15 in a group of five in two cars . We had a safe driver here and cruiser in the other . The journey was blissful with songs continously played and who reaches first was decided long before the start to the breakfast destination A2B, but by how many files was the hot dog cooking up in Krish's car. As usual , I was damn hungry and so were others . The moment we reached , Narayanan aka our beloved Nari along with Krish and Madhu were flagbearers of paying bills throughout the trip, and started in style by ordering a Pongal, Puri, Upma/Kichdi - the fight was going on why it is called with Kichdi when Upma sounds so delicious. Who cares ? The motto was to gobble all these and satiate the hungry belly , and all ten were honest enough relishing the tasty breakfast . Let me assure, I never ate such a tasty Pongal before, and it left me craving for more. The crowd was unforeseen specially on a secluded place on NH-7 but as the saying goes " pet ke liye aadmi kuch bhi karega" hold true here and goes any corner on earth. Infact, A2B was a blessing for the travellers at this corner of earth .
After hunger was satisfied, we all realised that we had to rush up to Vellore soon . At 10.30, we began the trip ahead . The road-less taken to the divin Sripuram was the one we took and reached before the cruiser's car reached. A tortoise- rabbit story was recalled which we learnt during our kindergarten's and it holds so true even today . :) No offenses to anyone, but the darshan tickets worth Rs. 250/- per head ensured a comfortable long walk inside the temple premises. The moment we stepped in , I glanced at golden templ and was mesmerising. The temple is built comprising the modern architecture equally laced with Dravidian architectural style. It is spread on a huge sprawling premise with Vedic quotes teaching you lessons on the way to deity . We had a very good darshan of Lord Lakshmi Narayani , and were blessed enough to have a comfortable and pray for a while . After wrapping the darshan task , the next destination which was reverred by the foodies and shoe-shoppers was Ambur. We reached here around 3 pm and you wont believe we roamed so-many shops owned by Muslim community here cluttered with leather shoes . Madhu was the person who had advertised about this , and probably after our visit, it may come in the list of Incredible India ! must-visit destinations :) We had a quick lunch here .Uma played his prank to the fullest by hiding my Nokia N78 in car's vouch and then roamed to every shop in the tiny hamlet of shoe-vendors .By the time , we tried our bargaining skills and bought a pair of shoes , Raja and Uma were already fed up and having a relaxing time seated in hotel.Ofcourse , there were many comments about my bargaining skills . But I take them

Disruptions of tomorrow . Today.

Never did I believe that there will be such a disruption in our normal lives through technology. Two areas where I foresee that the change is imminent and for good is commuting and fintech.

Commuting : Quickride

We all know that Ola and Uber , the ride hailing apps have changed the travel scene in metros in ways we could not imagine 5 years back. Apart from public buses , these taxis available at the beck and call had made our lives easier.  Add carpooling  to it and the entire gamut of opportunities arise.
Ola Share and UberPool are new enhancements for budget conscious riders. Though it makes efficient use of the car fleet by linking customers moving from point A to Z where other riders can pool from point B to E and C to D and so on . Inspired by this, I see apps like quickride have cashed in and made the car fleet of actual owners available for carpooling with its own gamification built in.
It has turned out to be very good move. People from same locality or same company can plan together and bear the expenses of the ride without worrying about the ownership of the car. New conversations get triggered during such journeys and commuting time is reduced. An amount of trust is auto-induced due to pre-verificiation of the driver/ car owner by associating his/her company credentials to the quickride account. I would like to see people from same RWA's ( resident welfare association ) come together and promote such initiatives for greater good. And I also want this apps to spread in tier-2 and tier-3 cities quickly as well.

Quick Ride 

Referral ID : WWC32

Fintech - Tez

Powered by Google, this app which got recently launched this year shows massive prospects in the way we transact going ahead. Likes of paytm, mobikwik or bank supported chillr, freecharge etc have disrupted the way we use cash . Now, Tez backed up by Government's UPI ( Universal Payment Interface ) is another app which has made life easier. Link your phone with the bank account and it's debt card and you are all set to transfer money easily. I myself have tried it and its super-easy to use . Remember paytm has made life easy by making us pay bills and buy tickets through one channel .Even addition of QR code and various security mechanisms has kept the site secure for general public to use. Tez takes it to next level  .Through multiple rewards and offers, it ensures to increase the user count virally. It also offers Scratch cards which we can use to try our luck and keeps us engaged using app. I wish the team behind Tez good luck for their noble plans.

Tez
Referral Code : KS80M

SBI Cards

With the advent of credit card industry , the easy money in the hands of wealthy increased multifolds. Also, the launch of Rupay card system has created a better alternative for Visa and MasterCard for Indian Banking industry. As per survey estimates, only three in 100 hold a credit card. Does it mean the less wealthy should not get this card and always rely on liquid cash. I would rather suggest this industry will increase as our GDP grows.

Image Search, Ecommerce and Bloggers ...

In Part 1 of the series, I posted about what went behind the scenes to attend the #FlipkartImageSearch experience meet, powered by Indiblogger team. In Part 2, I would like to discuss further about the Image Search feature recently launched by Flipkart and how entire eCommerce eco-system can benefit once this feature evolves.

Image Credits : Indiblogger

Every technology advancement undergoes immense scrutiny and likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter ( hmmm, to certain extent, from those early days) have served us pretty well . Image search is not new and is in use for long time. However, Point,Shoot and Buy of Flipkart is repackaged to suit its core business - selling products. Its immense matter of pride that its Made in India led by Puneet Soni, Chief Product Officer . If you are hiking in hinterlands of rural India, find an awesome dress matching your taste, you take a snap, search it and buy. That's simple, right ? Hell yeah...
That would be the ideal situation which Flipkart's team would be hoping for , and infact,we the end users would not just expect, but also demand it.

Yesterday, I reached out to my wife over chai conversation and she was more than happy to be my soundboard . Few of the points below came up and I thought to put it down too.

1. Novelty - Amazing feature if marketed well. By stopping millenials to click selfies and turning them to Point,Shoot and Buy, entire smartphone userbase with embrace it. After all, we are one big market for the eCommerce players.

2. Relevancy -  Books, gadgets might give better results when their images are searched but its usage will be primary clothing and fashion accessories I believe. Why would I click a book's picture when I can type the title of the book or phone in text search box ? Though the accuracy is better in former, I would like Flipkart to improve image search overall. Getting this right will do so much good to their business and getting it wrong might be similar to the scales of #bigbillionday sale goofup on long-term basis.  Imagine Snapdeal gets it right, your endusers ,who have forgotten #bbd sale,  may not forget this ever for getting it wrong.

3. Specificity vs Variety  : When we were engaged in team activity, Punit came to our team(Vyapam) to see how we were doing. I asked him that if I click a photo of my bright-colored striped shirt and fastrack watch, which product will come up in search results. He straight-away said that it would be the shirt because of its size and color contrast. Theoretically, fine ! But now, when it sunk in, it's really weird because when you boast of 25 million products, why do you limit your search to something which looks good in the picture? Instead why don't your results display both the products - shirt and watch - and motivate the buyer to buy both. This conversation was totally off the record and we both might have missed the nitty-gritty.  So guys, don't take this to your heart and consider it as viewpoints of two individuals.

What next ? Enhancement requests
4 . Obviously, Voice Search or BOLO,DEKHO aur KHARIDO or, ASK LOOK and BUY ! :)

5. Product availability notification -I heard from one of the flipkart guys making a statement that they retain images for short while when my fellow indiblogger questioned about privacy concerns. Instead, retain it for extended time -maybe 3 months ,  get to know the customer intent better by her images uploaded in the app and target for future sales - maybe informing the buyer when you find exact match, if it was not the case at first place. Or creating a personalised catalog of images in a mailer, instead of those promotional mailers which we move it to Promotions tab of Gmail and treat them as ugly sibling of Spam folder.

I am sure your excellent team of product managers and engineers have given out these suggestions and many/all the above are in pipeline. Maybe in your next few sprints, you will deliver them too.  After all, we have come a long way in searching for books in crammed Avenue Road of Bengaluru to getting the book delivered at our doorstep. This post was only intended to stop naysayers about slamming the product and adopting a more patient approach towards e-tailers to deliver magic we order .

Endnotes : As a database engineer managing large-scale enterprise infrastructure, it was quite pleasing to hear from Punit that their team has built their infrastructure to such an extent in last few months that #bigbillionday goof-up is a non-event if it was held today. Wish you good luck guys for the #TheFreedomSale !

Behind the scenes - #Flipkart Indimeet

Every mid-week, we start passively planning for the weekend and often our plans are made after few fights and then, each other's approval. It has been the same for last one year since we got married . However, this time, my better half ditched me royally. I don't blame her but her friends who somehow conspired to meet up  and eventually, went together to Mysuru to witness royalty. So there you see, I was left alone . Pity me !?!

Then, as usual, my few blogger friends whatsapped about IndiBlogger Meet happening at Hard Rock Cafe.  For last two years, I was totally out of touch with blogging as well as Indiblogger. After such a long hiatus, 2015 has been really good.Without second thoughts, I registered right away on Friday - July 31st and kept on anticipating the approval mail for my fourth IB event this year from Inditeam . Just a fortnight back, I was at WordUp event and it was lot of fun and learning. Now, this time, it was Flipkart - the giant of Indian eCommerce Story. And the icing on the cake was the venue - legendary Hard Rock Cafe. I had heard and read a lot about the venue and interestingly, few good things from my college mechanical engg department professor who visits here quite often and never forgets to put some great food tips on his Facebook profile which I always 'like' .

 I worked for a startup near Wipro Park,Koramangala which was just next to Flipkart Office. Quite a few colleagues there have now moved to Flipkart. Not sure if the office is still there, knowing that it has its own swanky new nine floor office space at Cessna Business Park in Bengaluru. There is lot of literature online which keeps you engaged with Indian eCommerce in general and Flipkart in particular. So hell yeah, I had very high expectations from the event. Point,Shoot,Buy,their primary selling point to host the event, is simple and catchy too .

Image credit : Indiblogger

With such a precursor, thanks to thoughtful organizers who kept the event starttime at 10.30 am, I manage to get good sleep and was raring to attend the event. It was packed house and I must say, there were quite a few who stood for the whole event due to lack of seating space. Few of my fellow bloggers have already mentioned about the Flipkart team and their firmness in answering the feature questions , albeit few offbeat ones.Also fellow indiblogger Debolina's  personal experience of meeting new bloggers and another colorful one from Archana helped me recall the event before I started penning these posts.

Anoop and the team were back with a bang at the podium of HRC followed up by 'minute of fame intro' sessions and deep dive into Flipkart's product talks. Appetisers were served well but to only those who took the risk of leaving their seat. After a decent Pasta in my platter followed by quick gulp of the plain vanilla scoops, I was done for the day. So I thought !

Infact, our ten fellow bloggers became published writers . So it was indeed a day for all of us to be proud. I got a signed copy of 10 Love Stories from Dr. Dutta. I already read her story and gifted it to my wifey. I would like to end this post as Part 1 of my experience. In Part 2, I intend to highlight very specifics about the image search feature launched by Flipkart, it's prospects and my feature requests. Stay tuned !

Evening with Bengaluru Bloggers

Credit goes to energetic IndiBlogger team for organizing it's first-ever 2015 event in Bangalore sponsored by generous Asus .

Though I had to skip my Friday cricket practice match for the upcoming weekend cricket tournament organised by my office, I had made up my mind well in advance not to skip this chance .
Last time, it was for Akshayapatra Foundation ( an NGO close to my heart) at ISKCON where I met the indibloggers. This time, it was a private sponsored event promoting latest gadgets and special thing was my wife accompanied me to the event. We both were ,for sure, quite excited.

Event started with long queue of registrations and then, a surprise for all - a kind of mini-rock show and bit of head-banging. I too was part of the whole group and had fun.Later, followed by intros, product demos and then exchange of stuffs and knowing each other. To engage the crowd, we were served some appetisers every now and then. Later, we all had fun in the group event where we had to huddle up to present a lyrical performance to promote blogging. Bloggers style !!! I enjoyed the bollywood performance by another group too.

Nowadays, we watch MasterChef and wanted to be back home by 10.30pm from ITC Gardenia. Well, the dinner served was so satisfying that when we reached home on time, we felt very different watching the food show, unlike regular days.:)

All in all, a great event to start an awesome weekend lying ahead !

Check list before renting out home

1. Check the water connection ( water released by local muncipal dept  - frequency(daily/alternate) / overhead tank or underground sump quantity)
2. Check the plugpoints ( sufficient enough for your TV/laptop/mobile/fridge / other gadgets )
3. Check the agreement , pay amount either by cash or cheque ( ensure to have necessary receipts for the same and keep a photocopy of the cheques(learnt it the hard way))
4. Check the geysers setup
5. Check the mirrors / windows
6. Check the wash basin area in kitchen/bathroom

7. Ensure the terrace is clean enough with no seepages and provision to hang clothes

Journey to my first phone

Not long ago, I used to daydream seeing others, who used to sport swanky Nokia handsets, talk to their near and dear ones or just mere showoff by keeping ringtone alert loud; I used to feel terribly jealous and question myself "When I will pose like those people?" That was six years back ! :)

I used to walk a km from my hostel to Avenue Road along with my friends, every alternate day after tasteless mess dinner to call my home and apprise my mom the regular stuffs at a tiny yellow-coloured call-booth. After the call, we never missed to sip a cup of tea at a small shop owned by one good-looking aunty, whom all my group of girlfriend-starved friends stared and go over top imagining everything they would. Even I fell to their trap, not that I was sadhu before ! Anyways back to where I was, if you are confused whether this crazy guy used to walk so long to call home or see that aunt, that too in Silicon City of India. Well, the answer can be YES to both, but my mother’s order to call her every other day overshadowed any damn reason. Although the motives were many, I used to go there only to call my parents and siblings located 650 Kms away from Bangalore by dropping never-ending stream of one rupee coins in the yellow-box and the reason was I didn’t possess the gadget called Mobile Phone or Cell Phone! Even I could not even imagine gadget like Tata DOCOMO OneTouch Net Phone back then .

Although we used to find solace being part of a breed called engineering students where a saying goes “Life takes backseat when you join engineering, in terms of girls “. If you are wondering when Baba Ranchodddas  said this, well author of this post believes so, and my engg brotherhood supports this claim. Sorry, I don’t consider outliers.
I used to visit home once every three months. Although I never used to insist my parents to buy one cellphone fore me, but they could sense my urgency to grab one, especially when some mama buys new phone and along my cousins, we go awe with it and in no time, test every single feature [can’t help, born to be engineers].

It was December winter of 2006 and I happened to visit my family during preparation holidays of my third semester exam. The atmosphere at home, my irritating bro and sis and constant pampering of my mom by serving dishes of my choice made me forget that I had come home to prepare for my third semester exam with loads of books in my bag. After a week stay, I boarded Udhyan Express – Departure Time, 8.10 pm, Wadi, Seat No. 21 AC 3 tier. I always preferred traveling in Sleeper compartment, but my dad insisted me to book this time in AC.From my past experiences, I knew  AC coaches were filled with boring travelers who were on their own for whole 24 hours. Get a life, guys!
To my dad's guideline, I said to myself  -Why not? It was free for me then, because I was still a proud dependent of an Indian Railway Servant, not anymore as I slog now to have a title called Software Engineer. Although I reluctantly agreed, I opted AC 3 tier rather than my dad’s initial guideline to book my seat only in 2A. I boarded my train in time with two heavy bags, piercing through people standing at the door to get my seat. Someone had already occupied my seat, and since the passenger was quite elder, I decided to sit at the side berths out of due respect to his age. I saw a girl occupying the lower side berth and obviously, she had booked. She had wrapped herself in a shawl covering her from neck to toe, wearing spectacles and cursing me from within as I trespassed her seat for which she was owner for next 12 hours. After seeing each other’s face for next half hour, I decided to start the conversation with her.I noticed she was reading some fat novel. I asked which book she was reading! She said something and I didn’t give a damn about that. I recall the author was Danielle Steele, and that was the first time, I was hearing this name. And later I found out that she was an ardent fan of this romantic novelist. We were lost in continuous chat and stopped until some old uncle reminded us that it was 11.30 pm and asked us to switch off the single light which helped us to gaze into each other's eyes. I still prefer an Upper berth in trains and it was same that day too.Reason: I love sleep and can’t tolerate if someone wakes me up early, especially in train. I believe many people who are fond of sleep and travelled in trains agree with me. But that night was different. Although we exchanged goodbye-and-it-nice-meeting-u pleasantries, nothing much had progressed and I didn’t want it to end here. I just wanted to wake up early let whatever happens. I had no gadget to give alarm, but I had up my mind to talk with her again next morning.

Next day, I checked my watch immediately when I woke up. Without any alarm or anyone waking me up, I got up on my own for first time in train at 6.30 am and I was relieved. I didn’t want her to see myself as a very desperate guy. So I behaved normally and went to do my daily chorus. We still had good two hours left and it was Hindupur I believe. I bought two cups of tea for both of us and continued our chat. Bangalore Cannt came, and she had to get down. I used to get down usually at Majestic, but this time, responded to the situation. I got some weird sense of feeling that something good was going to happen; and without thinking twice, I just got down and helped her with luggage. For those, who are thinking it’s just out of JAB-WE-MET, in fact, we both were pleasantly surprised and astonished later to see how similar it was to our life. Please note: this happened in Dec ’06, way before JWM released.

To my surprise; she shared her phone no. even without asking. I knew it made no sense asking number from her, when I myself didn’t possess one. But I knew “mera number aayega” but when, I was not sure! She insisted to give a miscall. To avoid getting trapped, I told her my cell is switched off and I kept it deep under my luggage. She later figured out that I lied then :) To my bad luck, I didn’t kept a pen to note down her no. Neither did she had. I promised her I will call back her once I reach hostel and just recited her no. on the way back. The moment I reached hostel, I messaged her using my friend’s mobile. This continued until I consumed those 100 sms of my friend, and it was getting really weird because he was one big flirt with girls , and he wanted those free sms badly. I decided to buy a sim. May be I am the first person on earth to buy a SIM before buying a handset. But yes, I did ! I used to remove his sim and chat with this girl until we really decided to meet again. It was exam time so I postponed the meeting and stopped chatting for a while. I went to home for 3 week long vacation after exams.To my surprise, my father gifted one nice cool phone to me. And there began the journey! I had my first-ever mobile phone before my first-ever date!

                                                
Today I own the phone in the image above after changing so many phones en-route, still I can never forget the journey to my first phone ! :)

Wish my laptop had this cool feature :-)

After leaving orphan to my blog , I am back again with some selfish motives . But as you know, I can't achieve what I want without my dear blog. The reason for popping here : One cool feature just striked my head and here I am , to pen down my thoughts in a distilled manner before it evaporates . Yes, ton of things keep squandering in my small head and I have leased hell lot of stuff for my laptop to store and remind me whenever I am about to miss any deadline , keep me focussed on my day-to-day job and explore the world using fingertips .But one things I expect my computer , the device which you are using to read this blog ,
to make me smile when I am sad and motivate me when I am down . 
I can list ton of feature additions here but to start with, I want this to be included asap !

Let me brief about how it can make me smile and happy first .
I spend majority of my day in front of PC and so do many of you . Atleast some moment of the day after cracking some puzzle or some external event , you are very happy . For instance, assume you  came home from the trip few days back and your friend calls you saying the trip photos are uploaded in Facebook/Orkut. You would be excited to check your own photos and feel happy . At this juncture , the computer can take snapshot of the screen which made you happy , or rather it can take your photo through camera which is available on most of the laptops nowadays . Even on your PC, it can do send webcam the signal to capture your smiling face.
Later whenever your are bored or sad, it just needs to pop up the screen captured or one of the photos from archive where u were smiling. Howzzat ! :)

Now, in similar lines, our very own computer can motivate us . Here there's a catch .
You can feed your computer with some videos ,anecdotes, stories or quotes which you believe can motivate you in any bad condition. Now,computer can recognize your mood and show/play up one of the files in the
archive. Here, we go ! You will never be bored when you sit in front of PC .
Looks like my creative juices are flooding here but you would be saying how can this be possible. Well, even I understand and have the same question.

Challenge here is to understand the person's mood . It can be determined by facial curves, eye movements and ... With technology advancing at the rate , where few years back we could not imagine touch phone, today every one possess it with dirt cheap rates, why not this can't be possible ?  :-) Now, I am very motivated and smiles are back . Do vote me if this triggered some juices flow in your mind, crazy thoughts ellipsing in your head and made you smile .


P.S : I have used PC, laptop, computer here . All refer same damn device which u love/hate but can't avoid !

A tryst with my priorities in near-future

First of all, lots been going on in my life but I can't use them as the excuse to be away from here for so long and come back here for the same reasons ! I am really sorry , but well, I am focussing lot of my energy on three priority things at the moment :

1. Work @ Office
2 .Alma-mater Reunion preparation activities
3. MBA preparation

The order of the points listed above are by no means differentiating them with the priority I give to each of them . The above three spheres have their own place in my life and I wish to offer complete justice to the attention each one deserve, to my full strength .
It's been a lovely journey so far the way I do my work or infact a day-job to win my bread and butter . I can't imagine I am on the verge to complete 1 year 10 months in my first job this month-end and wow , what a journey it has been ! Lot of new people, lot of gyan , lot of exposure , lot of office jargon ,lot of office politics I witnessed ( or the things which I claim it to be part of office - politics with my limited understanding ) .In the process, I garnered lots of support from my peers, seniors and ofcourse my manager .It's been a real joyride with lot of learning . I was amazed when I came across all the nitty-gritty things which I learnt as I came to this point and directly related to the vague notion which I had before joining the job . I boast sometimes and tell myself that what I knew is so true ( althought not completely :-) ). I love my job but well, you know , this is just a start for me and I wish to pick lot many milestones as I go along this awesome journey of life .

Well, I always believed and been a strong advocate of the idea that "Your day-job is just one part of life and not everything to rely upon to make your life happy ( or to some people, a reason to become moron , sad and lose interest in life) " . It's our life and we need to play it in our own way , the way we wish to lead it , in our own terms ! But to those who feel this is directly picked up from some bollywood movie ,I guess I need to add a disclaimer at the end of the post that any such resemblances are mere coincidence and nothing else ;) . Coming back to the point of leading life , it will become a totally different ball-game when we play our life led by external terms and accept the defeat that such terms are stronger and believe that we have no control on them . Anyways, just my 2 cents though from the life-skills I learnt from innumerable resources surrounding me .

Coming to the second point , my alma-mater UVCE will be witnessing a MegaReunion coming December,2010 . And the preparations are in full swing but need to be stepped up in terms of awareness about the same in the complete UVCE fraternity and outside. Also, it requires huge response from the attendees, volunteers at this moment like never before, just like the events organised on such large-scale basis . We need lot more think-tanks to take initiatives to build the strong network of their batches and club them together to form a huge well-connected web where every UVCEian belongs to the such a strong network . Infact, we came up with this website VisionUVCE to achieve that dream and it's been a tremendous success so far . If any UVCEian who is reading this now and hasn't registered on visionuvce.in , I kindly request you to click the link above and register yourself right away ! You might ask why I need to register . The benefits are immense and it can only be left to your imagination how you can get benefitted from the same . Short term benefits which I can recall are you will not miss any single update about the event MegaReunion which I am sure, you wish to attend at any cost ! Right ?:P Apart from that, there are some cool features lined up for the website . To give a glimpse of that , soon there will be online list of all your classmates grouped according to their batch and branch who have registered on the site . This will help you to track your long-lost classmate and then , we will be more than happy to facilitate the contact details of the person you were looking for , after minor verification to keep entire process safe and secure .
I am delighted to receive comments on what can be the long-term benefits and how we can achieve that ! So I invite every UVCEian to come for volunteer meetings happening every Saturday in Alumni Hall, UVCE City campus , 3 pm to get acquainted with the plans and share their thoughts . We would be more than happy to get few helping hands to make this event a mega-success . Just leave a comment below to know more about the event and meetings . I will touchbase with you so that we can take it forward . And if you are twitter-freak, you will not miss any updates @uvcealumni .

Coming back to my third point , I have a dream to do my MBA and willing to apply next fall i.e Fall 2011 . My preparations are going at snail-pace but wish to speed it up pretty soon . I would love to share the details with you all but for that I created a new blog just now titled "Ride to my MBA" and will be posting MBA updates I get from various sources which interest me and may benefit you as well as keep track of my progress to achieve that coveted MBA seat . Please pour in your suggestions / comments / topics which you really aspire to read from my posts in this regard or in any matter overall , so that this blog just doesn't become a place where I vent out all my feelings and thought-process going on in my non-stop mind , but a platform to serve you all in the stuffs you want it to .

Time to crash into my bed ! Thanks for reading this lengthy post :P . If you really read this till now , I am sure you will post a comment , right ?

A meeting of UVCEians seperated by dates

First of all, I wish to tell you all " Meeting planned by Mr. KNC in UVCE made my day ".
Let me recount the minutes before I start my Work @ Office because I don't wish anyone to be deprived of those moments just because you couldn't make it .

Srini & I had planned to come college together. He picked me up from my home sharply at 8.20 am . We reached college at 8.50 , gave a ring to Mr. KNC and stepped in UVCE college quadrangle .

Just 2 min later, Mr. KNC arrived . Along with him, his friends Mr. M L Ashok 1975 EEE UVCE and Mr. RSN Murthy 1974 Civl UVCE joined us and I was overwhelmed to find three esteemed alumni than expected one.

A stroll across campus quickly transported them to their college days and memories of their pranks, classmates , lecturers and identifying classrooms,benches , library, labs and nicknames too :) Apart from some cosmetic changes, the heritage is still carried over through years and decades .

Mr. KNC took his cam and took the snaps of the college nook and corner.He also pointed me out the current seminar hall which was the place where he won the BU Chess ChampionShip and a UVCE Boys hostel alumni just like me . Mr. Ashok recalled about his good old days at TT games,labs and classes . Defintely, I agree KNC Sir's comment - "We were among studious guys during those days." :) Mr. RSN Murthy added his points about his '74 batch reunion and shared the in and out of all the events happened nearby. Why not ? He is been close to college working in KPC and will be Special Point of Contact for spreading message and sharing tips like event venue and other event nuances along with KNC Sir.

After a quick photo session in college, we went to Kamat Cafe and continue discussion over a cup of coffee and ofcourse tea. Varied tastes as expected but it was a confluence of like minds having a dream of making MegaReunion a splashing event and make UVCE get it's deserved staus of IIT or a Deemed University atleast.

The discussion included the Rotary Club events to which KNC Sir and Ashok Sir are active members doing credible and noble work in Govt. schools . Progession of life in terms of technology like, hearing live cricket commentary thru radio , emergence of Tvs and DD , mobiles and lot of jokes over it . And in all these stuff, it finally zeroed always on UVCE recalling the people who have made a mark in their own fields.On a lighter note ,introduction class of google docs used for collaboration by KNC Sir to Srini can't be missed here.
All out there who said, our seniors may not be much tech-savvy, they are way ahead of us !

Two names which I can recall are R.Chakrapani, Radio presenter in Melbourne and , Pradeep Padukone, brother of Prakash Padukone among many stalwarts.Do share us their contacts too .Mano Murthy, music director and retired Software entrepreneur and Ramesh Aravind , actor-cum-director , Kannada movies.

We came back to college . I introduced Prof. V SatyanagaKumar( VSNK ) , Chairman , EEE to all the alumni . It was just a co-incident that he arrived while we were departing . Srini was happy to meet his teacher who taught him EEE subjects during his college days . Prof. VSNK also shared his vision of having a reunion of EEE alumni, although it didnt took off , the mega-reunion movement is infact merged his plan to achieve the larger vision of alumni . Definitely, this is going to be a real booster as he offered us complete support from whatever he can.
Although this was the first time I interacted him , with the discussion we had , I am excited to take it forward. Lomesh , Satish and Harsha already in touch with him will help us leverage the support .
They also checked out the UVCE map placed at the entrance, It was a pleasant surprise to them when they learnt that it is entirely created by Students . :-)

Finally , a very warm see-off with the promise that MegaReunion will bring back the the memories of all the good old days to everyone just as it did to KNC, Ashok, RSN Murthy , Srini . Overall, the happiness they got has inspired to really meet and if possible, surpass their expectations.To achieve that, everyone of UVCE alumni must come together .

Megareunion tasks focus :

1..I promised to add all three of them gathered that I will share the existing Batch Coordinators google docs . I already added ur mail ids and granted you access. KNC Sir has promised that he will liase with anyone and spread the word in full zeal as he is doing now .

2. A free event management site which will help us track the volunteers, tasks, meeting timings, updates .
The idea by KNC Sir which he found it very useful when he planned for an event last year .

3. Budget preparations : Although chalked out at the facevalue , Murthy Sir's input really helped me realise that we can infact reduce all the costs if we contact the right person . He is already aware of few UVCE alumni who can help us book the Kanteerava Stadium at a reasonable rate.
@Satish and others : What you say about this ? Do go ahead with your budget planning work but doors are always open to streamline such costs.

4. KNC Sir and Murthy Sir have promised to share their collection of photos for our SAMPADA and then , we can use them to our MR photo exhibition event . @SAMPADA editors : How does it sounds ? :-)

All have promised to attend the event along with their family, infact , Ashok Sir's father is 1949 UVCE passout . Sounds amazing right !
Note : All attendees were coming after their college graduation for first time . It means 35 years for KNC, Ashok and RSN Murthy Sir .
And 9 years for Srini.

Gosh ! I finished it finally .And still have a weird sense of feeling that " Hope I have not missed any minutes !" If so, I request the meeting attendees to please fill the gaps with comments here.

My blog also was left orphan for months waiting for a refreshing post but I have found one today ! :) [The dates in the title refers to the different years when all of us graduated ]

KNC Sir uploaded all the snaps on picassa the next day. I hope the it can be viewed publicly. Do check the photos .

Ending on a very positive note , catch you soon again !

A weekend trip to Balaji Temple, Tirupati

Ever wondered the reason which kept you thriving at your workplace the whole week immediately after a magnificent trip, we have unravelled the secret and revealing it here . Yes, that's what my colleagues and myself are upto . Never miss an opportunity to go on a trip , and even this time , it was no less-different . Vellore trip was still fresh in our minds and Tirupati trip was shelved just a week back due to unavailability of high-profile companions . But , the moment they confirmed their availability, the plans were finalized on Friday evening ! Madhu aka CM, Pramod aka CS , Raja and myself were the lucky bhakts to seek darshan of Lord Venkateshwara at Tirupati , and later, GB aka Ganesh was the surprise entry to the gang .

As we all know , the queue at Tirupati is longer than you expect, and you will only visit Tirupati when Lord calls you . And to jump the queue, there were few adventurous preparations but explaining them will simply eat away the essence here . So , I will give you the glimpse of the moments I cherish .

5.00 am Saturday : Planned start time . I had kept alarm at 4 and woke up at 4.10 and was ready by 4.55. Meanwhile, I called Madhu to make sure he is ready , because we were going in his SWIFT .As I realized that it had rained heavily through-out night , Pramod drove his i20 as safely as he could . Raja was ready before time and was already waiting for me from 6.15 but my good habit of keeping my mobile in silent mode has irritated others a lot , and I sincerely apologize them . Luckily, the trip started at 6.30 from Rajeshwari theatre [ very famous landmark ] . Madhu, the driver in fact safe one and GB occupied front seats. Raja and Pramod at back. You are guessing where I sat. Sorry, not boot-space , you dirty minds ! I was sitting between the two behind . A serene start to our trip on a rain-drenched roads and cold weather was just the best kind of start we could ever expect . A stop at K.R.Puram tea stall to suffice the hunger of Pramod gave the chance to all of us to have a sip of tea and munch cookies , although local ones :) . Financial planning was done and all contributed equal amount to me, so that I need to handle the trip expenses , and it was not at all a bad responsibility at all .
Journey took off with full josh , and comments kept flowing from CS and CM regarding the ownership of fields, mines , ponds and roads until we crossed Kolar . The ownerships were never on papers , but just imagine, if it belonged to our lucky CM. [ The names are abbreviated to maintain certain level of privacy, reader discretion is advised ] Unfortuntely, our dear Raja suffered from motion sickness , and anything he consumed, was sure to be puked out . It reminded me of my days when I was also victim of the same , and can feel the pain now. Now, I have overcome that after so many trips . He was just resting in backseat , and moment he dethroned GB from front seats, he took the responsibility to make sure our dear Madhu drove his car and took us safely onto the tirumala hills for first time by keeping him awake . Before that, we stopped near Bangarupalya to eat breakfast around 9 am . We had decent break here, and scorching heat made its presence so early. Honors were done by me from the funds , and so on ahead too . We reached around 11 to Alipiri and it was 11.40 when we reached atop the tirumala hills . Weekend culture has completely crept into India , and you go anywhere on these days, you will be told that " If you have come on week days , the crowd would be less " , but we must also not forget that even we are part of the crowd ! :) Right ?

All the plans of quick VIP darshan by taking cross-route didn't helped us. But we were lucky to stand in short queue to buy Rs.100/- ticket which in turn would help us get a quick darshan .A furore erupted in the longer queue , and it was accepted as they were totally frustrated to wait for counter to remain open and issue tickets until their turn, but something else to happen was destined, specialy during lunch breaks . We had to wait for another hour up-til 2 pm for the counter to open . In the break, filler stuffs like an argument with a fellow- person in queue kept us active for next one hour . Madhu enjoyed this break with a good nap in Baba Ramdev's posture . We were lucky to get the tickets immediately , and rushed in darshan queue . To be precise , we had a glimpse of Lord Venkateshwara in 45 minutes, and I had almost after three years . The crowd was packed , and was as usual . We fetched delicious laddoos and back to Bangalore SWIFTly. Ofcourse, shopping by GB, Pramod and Raja was inevitable . GB got a good deal with his binoculars .We had a glimpse of Garuda Parvatha [ an eagle-beak shaped pointed outwards the tirumala peak , clearly visible when you are on the way back down to Alipiri or foothills. ] Interesting conversations kept brewing through out the journey, and all were juggling up their seats now and then . Frequent breaks for coffee, soda, cigarettes and nature's call along with rains at journey on a highway at night delayed our schedule . I was trying to get my share of nap when all others kept the journey alive. Raja was feeling good now, just because his stomach was empty . He was hungry and so were all others . We halted at a pakka Punjabi Dhaba, where country-side cots reminded me of my childhood when I used to visit my native and sleep on the same kind of cots. Nowadays , all such cots are replaced with modern beds , and I hardly visit my native home now . Anyways, we ate nicely sitting on the cots enjoying the Jab We Met and India losing to SriLanka in a no-show match .India played pathetically except Dravid's heroic six which I loved in the whole innings. I had also predicted that they will win the Compaq Cup finals after losing this no-decider match , and it was true , luckily :) After dinner, I was charged up while the rest of us slept nicely with a few sher-o-shayaris from both ends. Madhu took the charge of driving the rest of journey after Pramod gave up and we reached the city around 12.30 . My cousin came to receive me , and we were already quite happy to pull the Balaji darshan trip in a single day ! It was a day laced with full of adventure + spiritual upliftment .

I would love to visit Tirupati sometime soon after all our prayers get fulfilled. Until then, stay tuned for more such posts . Your comments here are highly appreciated.

A weekend trip to Golden temple, Vellore

Plans to Tirupati trip ended abruptly, but never knew destiny had plans of Golden Temple , Vellore for the weekend , not just for me but for the fun-loving gang of my workgroup . Something never even planned but something cannot be denied with a group who are ever-ready to live every single moment ! Times have changed, we had to plan for a trip a month before in college and now, a lunch break is enough to plan a trip anywhere . :)

Early morning on a weekend , we were supposed to be at Madhu's, Nari's and Dass's flat. It is central location for any plans which we make , and its more than a palace where the high-profile conglomeration happens . I am referring in lines of G-8 , G-20 and G-... you can add any no of persons to be part and there is a place here for them . I kept an alarm at sharp 6 and woke up unreluctantly . By now, you have realised I wake up on trip days at scheduled time , so no need to boast this from now on . Krishna called up at regular intervals to me and Raja just to make sure we are ready on time when he comes to receive in his chariot, sorry his car . Ofcourse I was on time here too , but Raja came 15 min later. But this was good time for us to sit in a car and view the early morning scene near Old-Airport Road. I wonder so many people jog early morning, instead of sleeping cosily on a Saturday morning ! Newspaper vendors , BMTC buses , milk valahs... the world is already fired up so early , and I would never realise the beauty of these things if there were no weekend trips. I guess you all agree , right ?
We reached the central point around 7.45 . Already late , but there were many late-latifs than us so we grabbed the chance to savour a hot cup of tea nearby . Naveen, Hemant and Yugandhra were on time, but an uninvited accident delayed Uma's arrival by 30 mins more. The group was already hungry and we started finally on a journey sharply at 8.15 in a group of five in two cars . We had a safe driver here and cruiser in the other . The journey was blissful with songs continously played .Who reaches first to the breakfast destination A2B was decided long before the start , but by how many miles was the hot dog cooking up in Krish's car. As usual , I was damn hungry and so were others . The moment we reached , Narayanan aka our beloved Nari along with Krish and Madhu -the flagbearers of paying bills throughout the trip, started in style by ordering plates of fresh hot Pongal, Puri, Upma/Kichdi - the fight was going on why it is called Kichdi when Upma sounds so delicious. Who cares ? The motto was to gobble all these and satiate the hungry belly , and all ten were honest enough relishing the tasty breakfast . Let me say, I never ate such a tasty Pongal before, and it left me craving for more. The crowd was unforeseen specially on a secluded place on NH-7 but as the saying goes " pet ke liye aadmi kuch bhi karega" holds true here and the man goes to any corner on earth for that. Infact, A2B was a blessing for the travellers at this corner of earth .
After hunger was satisfied, we all realised that we had to rush up to Vellore soon . At 10.30, we began the trip ahead . The road-less taken to the divine Sripuram was the one we took and reached before the cruiser's car reached. A tortoise-rabbit story was recalled which we learnt during our kindergarten's and it holds so true even today . :) No offenses to anyone! The veda parayana darshan tickets worth Rs. 250/- per head ensured a comfortable long walk inside the temple premises. The moment we stepped in , I glanced at mesmerising golden temple . The temple is built comprising the modern architecture equally laced with Dravidian architectural style. It is spread on a huge sprawling premise with Vedic quotes teaching you lessons on the way to deity . We had a very good darshan of Lord Lakshmi Narayani , and were blessed enough to offer comfortable prayers for a while . After wrapping the darshan task , the next destination which was reverred by the foodies and shoe-shoppers was Ambur. We reached here around 3 pm and you wont believe we roamed so-many shops cluttered with leather shoes mostly owned by Muslim community here . Madhu was the person who had advertised about this , and probably after our visit, it may make it to the list of Incredible India ! must-visit destinations :) We had a quick lunch here .Uma played his prank to the fullest by hiding my Nokia N78 in car's vouch but later, gave up by my anxious face .We visited every shop in the tiny hamlet of shoe-vendors .By the time , we tried our bargaining skills and bought a pair of shoes , Raja and Uma were already fed up and having a relaxing time seated in hotel. Ofcourse , there were many comments about my bargaining skills . But I welcome them and all are free to voice their opinions in a democratic India . I bet there were far-better bargainers than me out there, right ?
Dass, the cruiser had to reach Bangalore by 8pm and it was already 6 and covering 200 Km was no easy task . We in Krish' s car had an amazing journey back home with discussions ranging from South-Indian film industry , controversies , politics, YSR's succession plans and what not ? And I was enjoying the conversation half-asleep . I usually tend to sleep soon on long journeys ,but my companions are always there to keep me awake . We were in Bangalore outskirts, and I told Raja that we are so near to our destination and how come the trip is ending without any roadblocks. It was simply amazing, but he replied me back that the same thing I could have told him when we reach Bangalore.Luckily, I dont believe in superstitions and we all reached safely to the central point. Hemant and others had already reached, and collected their scattered stuffs and prasadam . Dinner was also in the itenary and it was proudly finished at Cauvery restaurant where Nari and Madhu were lucky to do the honours as usual . I had a good sleep after reaching home . A lazy Sunday was awaiting me the next day , and expenses incurred by the concerned to be paid soon ! Hope it's not a bombshell ! :)
Keeping my fingers crossed for Tirupati trip next ? Let's see what destiny has it for us now !!!!

A weekday road-trip to Shivanasamudra

Have you ever wondered how to take an off in middle of a hectic week for a great day ahead ?
Well ! Here is my tale where I narrate how graciously I enjoyed the day to the fullest at Shivanasamudra .

In middle of the week and one fine evening , my cousin called up and made a proposal " Would you like to join tomorrow with us on a road trip to Shivanasamudra on a bike ? " At first instance, it was an offer which I can never ever resist , specially I have nurtured a strange kind of weaknes in recent past i.e I hardly say no to trips , and this was one hell-of-a-kind trip which I always wanted to be part of. But you know, life has changed . Bunking in college was far easier.I need to request for leave here! :( I guess there are many supporters to me out there, where they definitely ponder upon a day missed means huge burden next day or sense of personal responsibilty to finish assigned work on time. I requested them two hours time to decide , but already , I had up made my mind to take off from office next day and explore the mighty rain-blessed Shivanasamudra falls.
But I made sure that all pending work is finished and I was awake till 2 am to wrap it up. I kept an alarm of 5 am and here the journey starts .
As usual, I missed alarm and slept but my cousin had the task to wake me up at sharp 5.15 am [ Have u ever woke up so early, I never to say truth ] , they made me to get up , even though I stayed 10Km away from them . Finished the chores and reached their place taking cab around 6.15. Honestly,Bangalore in early morning has far more splendour than at any other time of the day - fresh air and low traffic . What else you ask for from this great concrete metro ?
A hot mug of tea was awaiting me , sipped it and then took off our bikes to start the journey .We were a gang of four cool guys, well thats what I thought . :) On the way , we had a sumptuous breakfast at Kanakapura and the ride was so blissful with the excitement intact. The greenary around , small mountains with mist still covering them, and a serene country side view added joy to our 110 Km ride .A trip on NH 209 to0k around 3 and a half hours to reach the destination i.e Gaganachukki around 10.30 . The water was gushing with an amazing thunderous sound and splashing waters made the surrounding next to heaven. But as always, the gang of boys resorted to photo session till the end . At once, it made me ask myself that this is what I came here for from so far , but later , even I joined the party and forgot all the doubts and cherished every moment. After spending good time, we planned to visit Bharachukki falls which is located at the other side of Gaganchukki falls. We travelled about 16Km again and went to other side of the falls, watched the falls very closely and took snaps with poses you never expect but can have a glimpse of all those here. Later, we made our way to Bharachukki falls , the view at once made us spell- bound and also , Tamanna and Surya's brother Karthik starrer tamil movie Paiya shooting was going on. The whole crowd was mad to see Tamanna rather than the uncomparable falls where the falling milky waters enticed us to jump into water right away . But , to our disppointment, it was restricted because of the movie shooting. I was wondering what those guys were doing. We were watching falls and even shooting for more than an hour gobbling chips , and to our amazement, they were repeating the same shot again and again ! Tamanna was good but the hero needs to go a long way to earn the reputation achieved by his elder brother .Anyways, we headed to Talakkad at 1 and reached around 2 pm. We were already hungry , and lunch was awaiting for us, instead we rushed where lunch stalls were present. The gang batted nicely , and instead of taking nap, all of us jumped into the river Kaveri to swim and play in water for which we were yearning for so long from morning . All had a jolly time over here . I dont know swimming and cousin Shiv, his friend Shiv and their common friend tried to teach me a bit, and I was totally exhausted after making worthless efforts tapping my legs and hands in the river .I came out from water sooner than others and took a small nap at the river bank . Until I woke up, all were in the wierd poses and capturing each other's snaps for their Desktop screensavers . Yes, really , it's so funny but yet so relaxing to be a part of good gang of boys who love to relish every single moment. I am always blessed to get such gangs wherever I go and thats what drives to plan for next trip before it's over . :)
Later, around 5 , after having stomach full of snacks , we left the splendid place around Kaveri river and headed way back . The ride was tiring with exhausted shoulders, but continuous boy-talks on the way back kept the trip alive . As expected , it's not the end until it ends . Two drunkards blocked the way and created a scene at the outskirts of Kanakapura, to extract money from us. We were a bit surprised, a bit tensed and bit adventurous to experience even this and come out . We tackled them and reached Kanakapura. But to our surprise, there was a bigger gang waiting for us who blocked our vehicles . We asked them to smash us if we had done anything wrong , as we knew , we were innocent . Few good guys among them rescued us and we zipped off from that place , and finally reached Bangalore around 9 .

The day was simply great. Amazingview of one of the best waterfalls in Karnataka and bit of uninvited adventure at the end mad us doze off after having our dinners immediately . Two days later, CM and his gang planned to visit the place to celebrate " Jalapatotsava - celebration of the gushing waters " . Why not even you plan to visit their soon, before that do comment the post right now !

Weekend trip @ Jog Falls

When it pours, it pours and pours to make the place I visited last weekend a heaven , and thats what has happened with monsoons playing spoilsport in few places like my native Gulbarga , and floods in malnad, the home for JOG FALLS .

Let me start my saga -

What can you expect from a lazy software engineer on a weekend ? Yes, you are right-on the spot, I was sleeping nicely when the sun had already come over the head and half the day was over. But for me , it was a still happy hours :) A sudden call from my friend Nings as we all address him woke me up from my sweet dreams.
"Are you coming to Jog Falls tomorrow with us or not ? If yes, board the train at 1.50pm from Blore city else sleep again !" - Bossy voice woke me up completely from my dreams by now, and checked my watch . It was 12 noon already . I suddenly gushed to bath room , finished my chores and was ready to reach railway station by 1pm. As expected, traffic jam in Bangalore never allows a lazy guy to enjoy the Bus journey peacefully. It was already 1.45 and bus was still in Mysore Bank Circle. I ran for life when it reached Majestic, then underground in station. The moment I stepped , train came. Thanks to Indian Railways for their punctuality. It was right this time i.e as usual 10 min late, not like, last time, when I missed train to Salem during Yercaud trip. If you are wondring ,what I am saying, read my previous post .
Back to my train journey, well. I had already booked a seat throwing my bag on a seat with a old handsome man assuring to take care of it. But by the time , I boarded and reached my seat, bag was somewhere and seat owner was displaced uncontroversially. Yes, a Patien aunty had occupied my much-guarded seat. :( What can I do apart from standing dumb-faced and searching for a seat. Luckily, old man who was guarding my seat got down at Yeshwantpur and I got a seat . Bliss started now. I enjoyed the whole journey glancing here and there to check out the girls sitting in front and back and even sideways. Fun apart, the moment I crossed Biruru, the nature welcomed me with rains and amazing views , long coconut trees, green grass, also paddy sprouting up lavishly and sunflowers struggling to find sun who was lost among clouds. I reached Shimogga at 7.30 pm, papi alias Papu ,its his pet name received me at station. We went straight to his home. finished our dinner after meeting his parents and watched TV, discussed few matters together and slept at 12 . Let me remind you we have nt booked any vehicle, there was a gang waiting to be joined next morning along with us . But we just slept after sharing the reminescences right from last day of college till date.

I woke up at 5.30, yes, I know you are surprised after reading above that I woke up at 12 the day before. Even I wanted to sleep still but all had to be ready and catch bus at 7.15 on a rainy sunday morning. We assembled at 7.10, took bus and started shimogga from 7.30 am . Reached Sagara by 9 or 9.30. The whole lot was hungry , we had our breakfast, as usual, Idly-vada to be at a safer side. Started at 9.45 an reached JogFalls at 11 am . We roared, watched a Kannada movie Meravanige in Bus and were too excited , after all we were going to see the splendour blessed in this part of the world.
We were dumb-struck seeing the majestic falls laced with clouds . The sunday crowd was unbearable on a rainy morning at a splendid spot by tourist authorities, yet none dithered our zeal to trek down. Last year, we had come here. Steps were being constructed but this time , entire 1388 steps were ready ! Shouted , screamed, captured pictured of this blissful spot , nothing less than a real treat to eyes. As we moved down, clouds disappeared and the view was more clear , with falls sprinkling water like heavy rain on us. We were drenched completely, still we marched until we reached the goondi or the bottom of the falls where falls dipped the earth making horrendous voice. The milk-like river water was gushing and the boys were on top of the world screaming and dancing taking the crowd along with us and engaging them in our excitement . It was tota l gala time over there. The view which we watched, I feel that we were blessed enough to have such a view and return safely with no single accident on the way, considering how far we had gone into the waters . It was 2 pm and there were no signs of Sun god appearing . We realised even he is having a nice time sleeping on a lazy sunday except rain god and us ! :) We returned to the top by 3. Rats were fighting in our stomachs and a just before soccer game was about to start, Hotel Mayura , KSTDC saved us .
What we plan, and what happened ! Yes, you were wondering how the script is going so smoothly ! Story is not yet over , my friend :) The famous SRK dialogue from OSO translated to all my brethrens across globe. We took tickets back to Shimogga at 3.15 . And take my words, the bus moved only 100 m in 2 hours. The crowd and traffic jam sprang up . And if we would have compared it to Blore traffic jams, it would beat by 20 - 1 difference. Finally, the jam was softened and after such a hue and cry, banging on top of the bus and a near riot, we reached Shimoga at 9.30. I bid bye to all my friends accompanied throughout with such a memorable trip . I quickly finished my dinner, and had to rush back to Bangalore, to start earning my bread and butter. Boarded a bus and reached in time by 4 am and room by 5. I checked my mails early morning and jumped to my bed without disturbing my roommates. When I woke up it, it was 11.35 am and office ! ? !
What happened next ? We will catch up for coffee and discuss about that !
But the trip came to close and I was relieved ! Yes, my dream of witnessing Jog Falls in full glory is fulfilled ! I can assist you in your next Jog Falls trip anytime , before check out the amazing pictures of my friends and Jog Falls , and do comment, how was my journey and blogpost :)

A weekend trip @ Yercaud

I always wonder why people spend so much and die to go places like Switzerland when our India , indeed incredible , has so many places .
Yes, Yercaud is one of those beautiful places where nature has poured all it's glory to the brim and it's overflowing literally ! I had heard this place few times before but never knew that it's worth a place but the trip on 30 th and 31st May , 2009 totally disproved me and infact, it was a relaxing as well as adventurous trip and also the first one with my friends@IBM ever.

Mithun, Mayank , Neeraj and myself planned suddenly and went for the trip.Mithun and Mayank had done most of the pre-arrangements but plans are not meant to be followed, or truly speaking, they could not be followed by gluttons like me ;) I missed the Kochuvelli express , busy eating at Barbeque Nation and later Taxi, too. I made it finally and reached Yercaud around midnight 2 am on 30 may .That's the start of the adventure and wait, it does'nt ends here, its just a beginning . MM Holiday Inn was our hospitality partner [ we had to pay heavily thou ;) ] Ladies , Gents , children seat were good, but Rose garden was the best for all the photo-shoot and worth a place to take ur wives there ;) The loop-road drive for more-than 2 hours was the best part which many tourists miss. Mithun , our senior -cum- guide was there for us anytime always and took all the pictures and also , the snaps of or one-and-only Neeraj and photogenic ,Shivraj simply came out the best along with Yercaud's hallmarks ! Montfort School is amazing but we could not go inside , since it was too early in morning and we were returning back to Blore. The catch of the trip was the amazing weather, greenary everywhere, trek down to water-less kiliyuru falls ,company of amazing colleagues and the return journey in Mubarak's [ our taxi driver ] Indica with a view so picturesque that you will get to see that only in Discovery Channel or NatGeo until and unless you pack your luggage and head to yercaud next weekend .Mountains laced with greenary and clouds, heavy rain in evening and hindering the sight from the cottage were the moments to cherish and ofcourse, a bottle of beer gave high to the already fun-filled weekend .
I truly agree my country is simply incredible !
Incredible India !

NOTE: The best time to visit is in summer , as you will relieved by the superb weather and serene climate and you will appreciate only during this time, as it will transport you from your hectic routine + soaring temperature in summer to a place which I call HEAVEN or ಸ್ವರ್ಗ !

A weekend with my family :-)

May 1st : I had invited my family [ dad,mom, younger sis and bro ] to arrive but they had postponed the plan by a day a week ago and you know, since it's an International Labours Day and to add a plum on a pie, it's a holiday in India [ not every country grants this day as holiday , love to be an Indian techie ] so had to spend whole day with my lazy roomie's .But we began our adventure of cleaning the complete home. It turned out to be more tiresome then what it takes to make it dirty ! I was awake till 3 am that day all excited watching movies on my ThinkPad . Day finally ended when I had no other choice to sleep as I had to recieve my parents next morning .

May 2nd : 7 am : My alarm [ also used as a mobile phone ;) ] woke me although I was so reluctant . A quick fresh up and off to Bangalore City Railway Station by 8.05 am . What a peace over there on a Saturday morning on Platform 4 ! It really feels good when still the world around you is waking up . You know, these cases are rare as my day usually starts @ 9. But from now on, I have resolved to start my days early, minutes before 9 . Anyways back to SBC [Railway Code: Bangalore City Railway Station] , I have grown up learning these codes from my dad who is a veteran Indian Railways fan and ofcourse , an employee working in Central Railway Zone.
Oh again , deviated ,so sorry ! It was so peaceful where I grabbed a cup of coffee and The Times of India copy, train arrived at 9.20 [ Expected time:8.50 ] By then I had already finished all the leaves of the paper and before that, two kids who were cousins one studying U.K.G in Bangalore and the other one finished his Senior K.G in Pune [Trivia : Senior K.G = U.K.G , I learnt from them this terminology :) ] just stood beside me, took the Blore times.Now, it striked you that they were exploring the pics of any beautiful lady's which even striked me ? NO ! they wanted to sit and displace/rather push me out of the seat meant for a single adult but still, I helplessly sat just to pass time with those naughty kids .Plenty of space was created for them and they started to tussle over an serious issue : Door of a train is foldable or not ? - Gosh ! They made so many arguments between them that I began to question myself that why the door is really not the way they explained .I had no other choice but to enjoy their silly but to be true, they were out-of-the-box statements from kids of age 5 who were so smart . Wow! The future of India is really in safe hands ! They can even make a train run without the tracks or create doubt in other's mind that the train bogie's really need a door. I was just looking the funny side of it ,now jokes apart -
I received my parents , a warm welcome too . We were in our flat (rented) in a Volvo which took just 30 min where usually it takes 45-60 minutes to reach for me any other day. I had a good nap after heavy lunch @ home .Later, in evening , the ever magnificent Shiv Mandir was refreshing to my pious mother .
A bit of shopping at the crowded Total Mall ,expected on weekend and that too, a first weekend of a month where everyone's bank account is credited with their salary . :) A good tasty dinner at Udupi Park but these guys made us to wait for long to get ready with the table for five. We reached home around 11pm and retired around mid night for a touring day tomorrow .

May 3rd : I had booked a cab for a day and after lot of calls a day before from driver1-> driver2->driver3, and finally driver 3 turned up .The first 2 drivers gave the way to the lucky one who complained of their unavailabilty .
Driver named Srinivas turned sharply at 8.45 am when we stepped out of home. And Bangalore Round started literally.
Ragi Gudda Hanuman Temple ,J.P.Nagar -> Nandi temple + Mahaganapathi temple ,Basavanagudi -> ISKCON ->Veer Anjaneya Temple,Mahalakshmi Layout -> Halli Mane , heavy lunch along with an expected rush on a weekend -> Science Centre + Govt.Museum , Cubbon Road -> Shopping @ Commercial Street.
On the way, all were quite pleased to get the glance of the beautiful Vidhana Soudha ,High Court, M.G.Road with closed shops and ever-industrious 'Namma Metro' staff who have spoiled beauty of MG road as of now and then, the list goes on and on ;) We reached home around 5.oo pm ,after fresh up, packed our luggages ,boarded in the cab and zipped off . Karnataka Express was scheduled to be @ 7.20 pm .Driver and I started fearing when it began to drizzle . As you know, when it pours, chaos and traffic jams rule the K.G Road near Mysore Bank Circle on the way to Majestic, headed to SBC[ Read above again if you dont know whats SBC ].
Confirmed seats in A1 coach was a sigh of relax before we left our rented flat here, because a waiting list in KK Express or Udhyan Express will hardly ever fetch you a berth to even sit until you reach your destination unless you grease the palms of TTE . There was an emotional see-off as expected but I invited them again for a longer weekend again in future . :)
I came back room , watched RCB win against MI and guys, to be true, Anil Kumble is the lucky mascot for the trouble-struck and sad-to-say a downtrodden fair-playing team . But yes, they are turning back as phoenix after a hiatus in IPL season 2 .

So this was the weekend what it was supposed to be , and I enjoyed it thoroughly with my family .Feel free to comment on places I visited and the one's which I could not !

My first experiment in kitchen

Finally, after a long break , I have arrived here shamelessly but my blog being so sensitive to store my special moments has waited for a little longer than expected for a post. :-)

Yes, today is a special day for me where I always considered myself to be an alien to kitchen , but for last one week, my roommates were experimenting their culinary skills and to be true , I was inspired by them too . Then what, when Mission Kitchen was planned with lot of strategy and resources in place prior entering the battlefield known as " KITCHEN" , infact , its wrong on my part to compare it with battlefield , rather it's a laboratory with all species of edible plants [ To be noted : I am a pure veggie ] . Ofcourse , I had tried maggie many times and loved it preparing but a proper staple course was never tried !
Let me come to my experiment which was planned, conducted and tested too .
I bought all items required to cook dal and rice , cut the vegetables, rice was being cooked simultaneously,and dal was well simmered , later cooked with an accuracy which many can hardly dream of ( I guess, I am boasting myself a lot, ofcourse yes, it was my first date with cooking today ), so what as always , the product generated after an experiment is tested with someone ( Trivia for you : Scientists usually use guinea pigs (white rats ) / monkeys as the specimen on which they test their experiments and draw inferences to prove that even that stuff works on 'WE' poor humans ! ) Since I am not a scientist and I dont ever dare to insult the poor specimens, I planned to test and guess what , I had my faithful hungry roommates who had no other choice too ;-)
At last, the food was served by all for all , and you would have never imagined or even expected that the DAL was damn tasty and perfect blended with superb white rice ( also cooked by me ), our hunger and taste buds were satiated to the max. So , now you may be expecting that I may get a garland for my success in experiment,sorry - this was just a start ! Ofcourse, they showered thanks and appreciated my effort for ending their wait and happily filling their stomach.
Wow ! I never knew experiments in kitchen are so much more fun than those in Chemistry lab in school where I always used to struggle and copy inferences in my lab book or manipulate them to get the end-result upto Chemistry lab exam in my IInd sem. engg !
LESSONS learnt : 1. Kitchen is not a battlefield, instead a lab ( far better and interesting than Chemistry lab !)
2. I have a good future in cooking !
Now getting philosophical :
* ** In life , we may come across many labs where we are tested , but its upto us how we turn those labs as test-ground for our experiments ! ***

P.S - Please comment on this and let me know how my experiment was - ;)

Humble visit

Well ! A sms from mytoday flashed in my ever vibrating cellphone as usual. It said, 4.9 mn broadband connections in India. Luckily, I have become the latest addition to the huge list.. 4.9 mn = 49 lakhs out of 1.1 billion(or 110 crores). Gosh!! what a per capita access to internet in India.. The story is in front of you.. Oh.. sorry ! I suddenly get wavered by these society loopholes but the reason I came here is completely different. Just to pay a humble visit to my blog which has gathered dust.. And I follow a ritual to clean up things now and then... U know it right ! ;)
It seems I have got adjusted to what life has in it for me. I know u all are wondering.. Yes! I will definitely make my life adjust according to me... Quite confusing!!
In past 2 months what all has happened.. India tasted a scintillating victory against the mighty aussies ..And the media has signed it off that Aus cricket team has lost its sheen.. Well ,Dhoni n boys, dont get complacent. They are one of the best teams and have immense storehouse of energy to regroup and fight back..
About me, I had been to my home, gifted brand new Honda Activa to my dear Sis. She was really happy. Even it made me quite satisfied. Now without saying anything, she helps and does all my work at home but I miss fighting with her now... :( My younger bro has gone mad about PC games. No playstation still !! But he loves playing NFS,RoadRash ,and many more...
And I am mad about Table Tennis(or Ping Pong). This is the only decent sport which drives me out of my cubicle nowadays.I spend good 2 hours everyday fighting to retain the active position else "Losers to sit" line pricks me every now and then when our team is about to lose ;( But I am a true sporty,not being too egoistic. Anyway I m tired after waking up at 11 today morning and bath and lunch.. Its time to take some rest.

Advices or comments are on the way I suppose... Kyun ! Post ho gaya na !?!