New year celebrations
Posted On Dec 31, 2004 at by Prakash G.R.As per my original plan, I'm supposed to leave Chennai last week itself with few of my teammates. First to Hyd to my PM's home then to pune for a big trekking and from there a good drive till Mumbai in the Pune-Mumbai high way then back to Hyd. While others leave Hyd, I stay there for 2/3 days till new year and celebrate the new year there. All cancelled. With a big face I've to go the staition and cancelled my tickets alone. So decided to stay back. Now the guys are back and telling long stories and I've missed all the fun, adventure and exp :-(
Hell with the deadlines.Today there is a code cut and I've quite a lot to complete. So I've to stay back. Now that I'm really happy because earlier what was thought that could not be completed, has been completed. This kind of happiness & work statisfaction is something that you rarely get and its worth trading for the fun and adventure I guess. Now after completing the official work, I'm blogging nearly after a month!!
Meanwhile, till this time there is no plan for the celebrations. First I've to take my bike from service. Last time when I left it for service, they called me up and said that 'Bike is ready; the amt you have to pay is xxx; you can take it'. Wow the customer care is good, but I was in a middle of a meeting. This time surprisingly I got an sms!! Thats cool. Customer care is improving in India. I'm about to leave and take my bike and go to my sis home. After that either its should be a booze party in my home/ just a dinner at my sub-juns home. Nothing decided. I'm yet to write few blogs about my past experiences in Silent Valley, Earth Quake, Tsunami etc. Will write it next year and post it. Till then Happy New Year :-)
Back to Wayanad
Posted On at by Prakash G.R.When we were in Pondi some time back, I was telling guys, 'how about a big trip with more people during this yearend?' People, including me, thought that its hard to gather more people. But somehow we made it to wayanad as a 2 day trip. 23 people from people from Chennai, Salem, Palakkad, Bangalore & Hydrabad gathered at one place after two and a half years. Its simply funtastic.
Right from the Central Railway Station, the fun started. Everybody was teasing everyone else. We expected Srihari will be late as usual and miss the train. Luckily he came in to the train in the right moment - unfortunately to the wrong compartment :-)
When we reached Calicut, we were looking for the vehicles booked. Actually we were 16 and I booked a 18 seater. Unfortunately they couldn't get it and so they arranged for a 11 seater and a qualis for the same rate of 18 seater. We have to split up in two vehicles for from Calicut till Wayanad. No other go, so I went for it. When the driver picked up us in the station and led us to the parking lot. He said "this is the vehicle you can get it". "What!" I said. When they said 11 seater I expected a tempo traveller. What was there was a brand new Chevy Tavera with factory fitted Ac. "Wow. Thats cool!".
It took 2 hrs to reach the resort. From Pookad Lake, we have to take a different road to reach the Vythiri resort. Ok. It was not a road - just a path. The 4 kms was bad. Vythiri resort was cool. It was in the midst of natural surrondings, a small spring was running inside the resort spitting it into two halves. The only way to go to the other half was thru a hanging bridge. They have cleverly arranged the resort. In one half they had the reception, the rooms and the play ground. The other half had the restaurant, coffee shop, indoor games, swimming pool etc. So you have to go in the bridge quite a few times. I can see some kids staying there were exicted when they cross the bridge. Why kids? Even few of us were! They were so exicted & was very particular in taking photos in the bridge so that they can show it to their teammates!
One thing without which the blog wouldn't get complete is Sakthi and camp fire. He talked for around 2 hrs and everybody else was listening. He was teasing everyone in a round robin fashion. No one could talk anything against/with him. That was fantastic show and no one can even imagine doing like that. The touching punch dialog to him was 'nee ponnu parkum pothu ethum pesathada, apuram unakku kalyaname aagathu'.
The next day we went to the Pookad Lake and spent around 3 hrs up there. First we went for a walking and then we went for boating too. While walking I went to the place where I've scribbled my name on the moss. Last time when I went there with my team, it was rainy season and it was so greeny. Now all that got dried up and it was brown in color. I can see my name still. The surprising thing was there were lot of names written on that. Ha! I have lot followers :-)
On the whole the entire trip was fun. The place was good. The food was neat. We all had a great time together - that the most important point. We Chennai guys ended up travelling around 15 hrs for the destination and the Bangi guys spent just 6 hrs and hence spent less. Additionally on the way back they visited Mysore too. Next time I should select a place which is near the Chennai :-(