My Thoughts! - by Prakash G.R.

Our company organized a trip to Mysore during the X-Mas weekend. 2 Buses were arranged. The bus from the office was scheduled at 7.30 AM and it didn’t start till 8.30 and we were waiting for few more people to join us. Somebody came to me and asked for my helmet. I asked why? He said few guys are planning to go in bike and they need one more helmet for the pillion rider. My helmet came for the trip with a rider, me
The Bangalore-Mysore road is a four-lane highway. Driving is a pleasure. But reaching the road from the office took almost an hour. At Mysore we stayed in Lalith Mahal. With all kind of liquor (they didn’t have 7up/sprite for mixing thou), orchestra and dance, dinner was quite good. As with every party there were people who boozed too much and were the center of entertainment for the rest of us.

The next day people went for trekking in Chamundi hills. I was feeling sleepy and so didn’t join them. By noon we drove back. We had a stop at Ranganthittu and went for boating as well. Nothing much to describe about the trip. Photos are here:

Amit is planning for a trip to Kanyakumari during Jan 26th. There are less chances for me to join the trip, as I’ve to go home that weekend. If its on some time March, I’d have definitely joined him. hmmm. Now I miss bachelor life

written by Prakash G.R.

Finally I developed the roll. Here are the photos of the beast.

From Diwali Trip

From Diwali Trip

written by Prakash G.R.

For the long weekend on Diwal, I had a bus ticket to Coimbatore on Friday night, but since Friday is a holiday, I was thinking of driving to Coimbatore. The previous Saturday when Raja and Ashok were also interested in joining, it was decided that we’ll drive. On Tuesday, I was talking with my house owner and told him that I’m going home for Diwali in bike. He said, “ethuku sinna vandila, peria vandi thaan iruku illa, eduthutu poo” (Why small vehicle? Take my big vehicle and go). They had two Maruthi zens and one is very rarely used. I admitted that I can’t drive cars. He smiled and pointed to the “big vehicle”. Its a Thunderbird. Hmmm. When I bought my pulsar, one of my friends commented: “When you ride a bike, it should look like a prince on a horse. But with this bike you look like a mosquito on a buffallo”. Thunderbird is twice powerful than my pulsar and its definitely a bulky beast. How will I look like? Mosquito on an elephant? Never mind, I thought of trying. Thursday I took it to office. It was like a test drive. I drove in the Koramangala traffic and in the inner ring road as well. I felt comfortable and thought I can handle it. So I decided to take the “big vehicle”.

Friday morning, I left at 6.30 AM. Raja and Ashok joined me at Madiwala and we started. After Hosur, I lost them from my sight. I waited in the road side and then went back a km also. Cudn’t find them. With no cell signal, I cudn’t catch them. There is no point in looking for them and I proceeded alone.

I took the Thoppur, Bhavani, Tiruppur route. The four lane NH - 7; Thoppur forest; Mettur Dam; Tiruppur-Pollachi road, everything was perfect and the ride was enjoyable. Except for one small accident. I was having breakfast after Krishnagiri in a Punjabi Dhaba(Is it true that there are more Punjabi Dhabas in Tamil Nadu than in Punjab?) When I came out to the parking space, I saw the headlight was smashed and the mudguard was scratched. Someone in a car, which was parked near-by, told me that some lorry crashed into my bike when it was taking reverse. The driver of the lorry came down; saw the damage; went back to his seat; and went away from the scene. I was helpless. I’ve to repair it now :-/ Monday morning I started and took the Coimbatore-Salem route. Except for the 15 mins heavy rain after Salem, the ride was perfect. The total distance was around 800 kms. I’ve taken few pictures. The film roll is complete, I’ll post them here.

Don’t ask me what was the response at my home for driving. I better not write anything about it My pulsar will be good till 100km/hr speed. Beyond that speed, you will slowly feel that you are loosing control. But Thunderbird is different. Most of the time I was driving at 80 km/hr and many times at 120 km/hr. The bike was solid. No wobbling at all. After a while, you won’t even hear any sound from the engine. Its surprising quite at higher speeds.

Thunderbird is a nice bike. Initially I thought it might not be comfortable to drive in city traffic, but I was wrong. It is equally good for regular commuting. May be I’ll sell this Pulsar and buy a Thunderbird. But first I should put on some weight. At least I should look like a bird on an elephant

written by Prakash G.R.

I tried to create a Collage of few Train pictures taken during Sivasamuthram trip. Thanks to Picasa, it was a matter of seconds. If you were wondering what were we doing at a railway station when the trip was on a car and bike, you got to read my earlier post: A conversation between Mr & Mrs God

written by Prakash G.R.

Train journeys during day are interesting. If you get a ticket for an overnight journey, there is no much happenings. You get into the train; wait till the TTR comes; get scribbled in the ticket; switch off the lights and go to sleep. Next morning your journey ends. Day time journey is something different. You see people.

Last weekend I went home and the return tickets were full. So decided to travel in Intercity Express. I didn’t reserve tickets because usually Coimbaore-Bangalore Intercity is not as crowded as the Coimbatore-Chennai one. My coach was not full. I was in the end of the coach and there were a big North Indian family in the middle of the coach. There were talking little loudly, otherwise it was quite. I had a book to read. After an hour or so, I turned my head around. The guy opposite to me had a diary and was writing something. He was writing for the past half an hour. I couldn’t remember the last time when I wrote something more than 2 lines. I think it should be my last exam in the fifth semester. After that, I use my pen only to sign. If not, I would write a few lines during a tele-con or a meeting. When I type a blog or a email, I have the delete key. I can type a sentence, think over it and rephrase it. After completing the paragraph, I can rearrange the sentences. But writing something in a diary is not the same. I wish I could type my blog/email like that. Keep typing and click the Submit/Send without a proof-reading/error correction. It would save me a lot of time.

I was indulged in this thought and I didn’t noticed that hindi song. When I listened for few seconds, I thought that the North Indian family might have brought a portable stereo. When the song was over, there was a big sound of clapping and cheering. I turned back and what I saw was not a Philips stereo, but a train singer with a Harmonium. Unlike the other singers, he was neatly dressed. He neither had an unshaved face nor a kid with please-pity-me look. His voice was good and they way he sang made the family to ask for 2 more songs. At the end, his collection would have been around Rs 50/-. Then he moved away from them and walked towards the end of the coach where I was sitting. Now he was singing, “வேப்பமரம், புளியமரம்” song from the movie சாமி. I’ve heard that song before, and never paid attention to it. I’d simply forward it to the next song, which would be “திருநெல்வேலி அல்வாடா” or “இது தானா”. This time, I didn’t have a choice clicking the forward button and even if I had, I wouldn’t have done it. He sang the song so enthusiastically and it was nice to listen. By the time he came near me, the song was over. As the doors between unreserved coaches are not open, he has to wait till the next station to move to the next coach. He sat near me and I started talking to him.

His story was little astonishing. He has a passion in music and wanted to become a singer. His parents, just like everyone else, wanted him to study well and get a job and bring back a pay cheque every month. But his dream of becoming a singer didn’t allow him to do that. After completing his B.Com, he left his home and came to Chennai. Just talent cudn’t help him in fulfilling dream. Not every singer, who comes to chennai becomes SPB or Hariharan. So to make a living, he started singing in a Music Troop and still looking for a chance. Not all 30 days of a month he would get income from that. So he became a train singer. (I can’t call him as a begger. He is not begger. He sings and if you are entertained, pay him)

I asked him one simple question. “If you had listened to your parents, you would have been better than what you are now. Don’t you regret for it?” His reply was simple: “What do you mean better? Being rich; married to a beautiful gal and having nice kids? I can’t settle down for some 10-5 office job. Thats not me. I’m happy with what I’m now - just being myself. Even thought I’m not making big money or being popular, singing is still my profession; and more importantly I’m still chasing my dreams. I might become a singer or I might not. But I’ll try till the end.”

I don’t know what to say. I’ve met many people, who would join a course/join a college/go for work/marry people just because their parents wanted to. They throw away their dreams for their parents and this man threw away his parents and chasing his dreams. Which one is better? I don’t have an answer. He left at the next station, but his words of “chasing dreams” still in my mind.

written by Prakash G.R.

Due to our CIO’s visit, the declared pooja holiday was postponed from Wednesday to Friday. That gave us a long weekend! Dinesh was driving force and finally Ravi and me landed at Thirssur along with him to Shine’s home. We were there for 2 days: Friday and Saturday. We went to the ‘Punnagai Mannan’ falls - Athirampalli and two other falls near by also. We also went to Guruvayur temple, a place where all the elephants of the temple were kept and then to a dam nearby. 2 days were jam packed. The best thing was the food at Shine’s house. Right from breakfast to dinner, it was NV and poor Dinesh, he struggled a lot Few photos here …

written by Prakash G.R.

I was about write a blog on my last week trip to Bangalore, and yesterday evening I got delivered with a parcel. It had a Audio CD in it. I played it in my PC and was surprised by the conversation. It was between Mr & Mrs. God. I don’t know how someone recorded it and then why they want to sent it to me, but nevertheless the conversation was good. So here it goes along with my comments in between.

She: Naatha
He : Sol, Devi.
She: I have one doubt.
He : mmmm. Its Friday midnight and its already 12. What doubt you have at this odd time?
She: Any way the good things happen for good people and bad things happen for bad people. Why do you need to exist? Do you really have any powers? What can you do?
He : Hey, I’m after all God. I can do anything I want. hmmmm ok. Look at those two guys sleeping in the train. Are they good guys or bad guys?
She: You mean Prakash and Ravi? They are one of the very best guys I’ve ever seen. Why?
He : See what happens to them tomorrow.

/**
I don’t know why Mr. God chose us to demonstrate his powers to his wife. May be because we were the most innocent and good people on earth and his powers are best explained if tested on us **/

He : Devi, wake up. wake up
She: Naatha, its 3.30 in the morning and what are you doing?
He : Look at that guy Prakash. He woke up now itself. You know y?
She: Y? He wanted to go to bath room?
He : Nice guess. But no. The answer is the lady in the upper berth opened the window and chill air was on his face. He is in the lower berth and someone who was going to bath room bumped on his leg. Now he can’t sleep. I’ve made arrangements, so that no one will be in the station for receiving them

/**
Ada kadavule. unaku enna ippadi koduma paduthanumnu ethana naala aasai? ella en times. So as this fellow ‘arranged’, Guru and Sakthi were sleeping when we called from the station. We took an auto to their house.
**/

She: Naatha, whats up? These guys planned to start for some falls by 9 AM. Its 12.30 and they are still in the house. What did you do?
He : Simple, I made Varda to go late. You know he is always punctual. But somehow I made him a little late.

/**
You too, God? I’ve seen many people telling lies to impress their gal friends, but this is the first time I’m seeing someone telling lies to impress their wives! That too its the God. Halloooooo Mrs God. If you happen to read this blog, know that your man (or your God?) didn’t do anything. Its a usual thing for Varda to come late and ditch all the plans we have. hmmm. We actually planned to return to Bangalore by 3/4 that evening. But it was 2 PM when we left the city. We had Arasu’s bike and Varda’s car. Varda didn’t pay road tax for his car and its a TN registration. We got caught by an RTO. But Ravi showed his visiting card from Chennai and told him that we are on a trip from chennai and fooled him. After half-an-hour trouble, he let us go. We reached the falls by 5.30 and then started our return journey.
**/

She: Naatha, you said you will trouble these guys. They already visited the falls and are enjoying the trip now.
He : Hee Hee Hee, The lunch was good and so I slept for sometime. Boom. Now look at that. Varda’s car is not going to move after this.
She: Oops! Let me see how these guys handle this. I think they can’t even call anyone because there is no network in that area.

/**
The clutch plates in Varda’s car worn out all of a sudden. As Varda is a very very good driver, there could be no other reason that a person wanted to impress his wife with his powers. Guru and Ravi went in Arasu’s bike to get some mechanic from the near by village (24kms away from the spot). Others (me, Madan, Varda and Arasu) stayed back with the car.
**/

She: Naatha, look at them. They are enjoying the evening sunset, singing and enjoying their time.
He : True. Let me ask our Varuna Bhagavan to have some drizzle. Let them settle inside the car

/**
Bad move Mr. God. We all enjoyed a little drizzle Meanwhile, it was getting darker and we managed to get a helping hand from a tempo driver. He was ready to tie the car to his vehicle and pull it till the next village.
**/

She: Looks like they are going out of trouble.
He : You think the game is over now? (in his cellphone) Hello, Varuna. Yeah its me again. Can you make rain instead of drizzle? No, No, No. It should rain cats and dogs. Yeah. Yeah. Got it? Ok I’ll talk to you later. Bye. (ends cellphone talk) Devi, See the show now.

/**
It rained heavily and the water was flowing above our knees. To make things worse, the rope got cut and we have to get down to fix it. After all these thamasha, we managed to reach the place by 9.30 PM. Luckily we could get some bread and Miranda for dinner. The getogether dinner planned in Bangalore with all our classmates there, was cancelled an hour back.
**/

She: Now what? They have called the Hyundai help line. The service van is already on the way. They are going to get the car repaired; go back to Bangalore in 2 hrs; booze in some bar; go to sleep. Isn’t it?
He : Haa, Haa, Haa. Wait Devi. Its not over yet. You think those service guys are going to get the car ready? You are mistaken. They planned to take the car to Mysore. Along with the car guys have to go to Mysore now. All their plans are ruined Haa. Haa. Haa.

/**
Its not over yet. The Hyundai service personnel were from Mysore (the place we got struck up was very near to Mysore than Bangalore). They were not ready to tow the car to Bangalore and we were not ready to go to Mysore. Finally we both agreed that We’ll tow the car till Mandia, a place 30 kms away and from there we split. We’ll go to Bangalore in a Cab they’ll book for us and they will tow the car to Mysore get it repaired and bring it back to Bangalore on Monday. It was heavily raining and Arasu said that he will drive the bike till Mandia.
**/

She: Poor guys. It must be a pathetic day for them. Looks like finally its over.
He : Devi, don’t underestimate my powers, the worst is yet to come.

/**
Just like her, we too thought its over. But it was not. The guys didn’t know the way to Mandia. Somehow we got directed in a wrong way and we were wandering in many places . At a point Arasu gave up. He said he can’t drive any more. I started driving and then only I realized why he said like that. There is no proper road, it was dark and the chilled rain drops were piercing till your bones. If that isn’t enough, the headlight’s high beam went off. So I have to use only the low beam, means I can’t see beyond 4/5 feet before me. Ravi even said that there was a big snake that fall on the bonnet of the car!!!
**/

She: Naatha, I feel this too much. They are poor innocent guys!
He : Hmmm. I told you right, I’ll show my powers. Now what do you feel?
She: I’ve another doubt. Neenga nallavara, kettavara?
He : What? How do you expect me to reply? Like Kamal?
She: No. Are you God or Satan? Now I got cleared of my earlier doubt. The mere existence of God is to make sure that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. It doesn’t happen just like that. But you are doing it the other way. Tell me. Are you God or Satan.
He : (Confused, thinks for a while) Hee. Hee. Hee. True Devi. This is just a part of my Thiruvilayadal. Think in this way. All they wanted to do was to visit the falls. They did visit the place. Apart from that, these experiences were an addition. It might be troubling at present, but later when they turn back and see, they might have got a rich experience. They will proudly tell their friends about these experiences. Who knows that crazy guy Prakash might even write a blog about it!
She: Enough of your valiyal smiles and samalips. Now set it right.
He : Hee. Hee. Hee. Ok.

/**
The dialogs in CD story ends there, so were our troubles. One of the service person came and said that he need the bike, to go in front of the cars and search for the way. I happily jumped into the car. In another 15 mins, we were in Mandia. (It looks like were already there for a while and roaming around the city instead of entering) None of us were ready to travel for another 100 kms. It was already nearing 2 AM. So we settled down in a hotel there. The next morning, we took a train to Bangalore and reached there by afternoon. After that we went to lunch at Varda’s house, slept for a while, booze at the bar and returned back to Chennai. Nothing great enough to get bloged. Hmmmm, looks like for me to blog on something, the Gods must go crazy.
**/

written by Prakash G.R.

I first met Ani when she joined iView team. I was with ASG team then and as Ravi was with iView. I used to have lunch with that team and so I met on her first day of her job itself. She had joined as a fresher from Anna University. I was told that she had received some color belt in karate. Still with a little boldness left in my mind, I demanded her an ice cream as a joining treat. She looked at me and said, ‘tharen Prakash’. Not sure of whether it was an ice cream or a demo of her karate talents, I nodded my head. After I joined iView, I learnt that she is not only good in karate, but in few others too. She is a swimming champion; she remembers every song in tamil movies; she can reproduce the entire dialogs of all the comedy scenes with the same expressions; she can drive a bike in the ECR along with us to mayajaal; she is the one who can make the loudest whistle sound and finally she is the second best cook in our team (without me telling my name, obviously you know who will be the best)
Wondering why all of a sudden Ani came into my blog? She invited us to her native this weekend and we went there. It was such a wonderful experience. Forget about the funny happenings and silly teasing and the night rounding in the township in search of a tea at 1.30 AM. This blog is all about the places we visited in Neiveli. Now, over to Neiveli.

Neiveli is a township by the lignite corporation. Its wonderful in many ways. The whole township is well planned with neat and straight roads. People pay an ignorable amount as rent, cable tv fees and electric power. They can stay as long as they are employed in there. Once they got retired or terminated or they quit, they have to vacate the place and some other employee will move in. The net result is that the population of the town remains almost stable. Its a peaceful life there.

Apart from township, we visited two places. One is the thermal power station and the other is the mines. We could go into the furnace, the generator and to the control room too. While they were explaining about the functionalities with the software, I was wondering, what language might have been used?, If I’m to create a library for those strange looking controls, what will be the challenges I face, etc. hmmmm. can’t help. After all thats what I do for my living. All these happened in the fourth floor. He had completed explaining the process of creating the electricity with the heat, I thought overall, its a good knowledge gaining experience. We headed for the lift. This time, it was a different lift. I noticed that it was showing 1st floor. I was telling our guys that the indicator was wrong. The lift operator with a smile said, “You are wrong. For this lift, this is the first floor”. huh? what the heck? So are we going to the ground floor now? No. We are going to the 7th floor, which is the highest in this thermal power station. And it was around 75 meters. Almost thrice the height of my tnagar office and it says we are in the 7th floor! We were taken to some view point and while walking somebody screamed ‘Don’t look down!!!’. Everybody looked down and almost everybody screamed ‘Don’t look down!!!’. We were walking on a small path which actually connects two towers and we were walking on a grill and there is nothing between the floor and us. After that everybody was walking different. It was funny to watch. Esp. Venki. He was so scared. Gals were teasing him to wear a chudithar. Me and Mike went near him and jumped on the grill that we were walking. He was scared to death. Then after the enjoying the view from such a height, we were prepared to go down. This time, we stopped at around 35 meters height. We were taken to the place where a conveyer belt carried all the lignite for the furnace. With conveyer belts on both sides and a very steep elevation, we started walking down. It was a little tough to walk as there is no steps and just the elevated floor. After 10 mins of walk we reached the bottom. We went a little far and looked at the path we came down. It was really breath-taking. After that we went and looked at the cooling towers and the 400 kva switch that puts the electrical energy into the grid. We were not allowed to take photograph, but still managed to take one standing outside. Will post it later.

The next day first we went to a lake. It was an artificial lake and used to separate water & ash. The water which is used in furnace will contain lot of ash and can’t be used with that contents. So they pump the water into this lake. The ash gets sedimented and the water is collected from the other side. The color of the water and the ash created a wonderful scene. I took a picture with Ani’s camera, which I’ll be posting later. From there we went to the mines. There are actually two mines and we went to the second. We were stopped at the main gates and then shifted to an NLC bus. We were taken into the mines. While we were going, we passed a place called ‘crawler yard’, where giant sized machines were repaired and maintained. The wheels were almost 6 feet height! hmmmmm. Mining requires this kind of large machines I thought. Few more minutes travel and a sudden turn in the road, we had a view of the mines. Its an open mine and they have digged 80 - 100 meters from the ground level. The area of the digged place was around 1200 hectares !!! And those giant machines which we saw a few minutes back were looking very tiny near the digging machines, which are bigger than several “sky scrapers” in chennai. The whole thing was looking something like the “star ship troopers” coming alive and you are going into an alien space where machines are working. In another 10 mins we were at the bottom most portion of the mine. It should be around 80 meters from the ground level. Each machine there digs around 30,000 tonnes of material everyday!!! We then went near one of the machines which was digging and saw how much of land is cut every second with that. It was really an amazing experience. And those ‘giant’ ones with wheels taller than me, are merely used to push off the left overs. Now big is just a relative term !!

We had fun, ate good food, enjoyed a lot and had a rich experience - one 80 meters above the ground and the other 80 meters below the ground. We all should thank Ani for giving this to us. Ani, but still you owe me one ice cream that you promised

written by Prakash G.R.

Been to Karur for the Hema’s wedding. Sometime back, I found he was struggling to say something to me. I guessed that either he is going to switch to another job, if not another team. To my surprise he said he is getting married. He is just out of college and I thought it will take atleast an year or two for him to get married. Thats pretty soon!!! I know what will happen if I attend his marriage. He is subjunior and atleast 4 yrs younger to me and I’ll be the target for everyone in his class there. As expected it happened
The marriage was on Sunday early morning and he has called in for the reception at 11 AM. I joined my teammates and reached there on saturday morning. Checked into the hotel and decided to go to Kolli malai. Booked a Qualis and started around 10.30 AM. It took 2.30 hrs to reach there. Unlike Karur, the weather was so chill and pleasant. Even drizzled a bit. We reached a temple there and Bala told that we need to step down to reach a water falls. I didnt have much expectations on that. But climbing down the steps, I felt coming back is not that easy as the steps were so steep. Finally when we reached there, I was surprised. The falls was unimaginably superb. There was no much water flowing, but even then the water should be flowing from 600 feet or even more than that. Thats certainly 10 times higher than Thirumurthi hills. We took bath in that. The water was so chill and it was piercing the skin with force. I couldnt stand there for more than 5 mins. Enjoyed the natural shower and came back. I felt very bad for forgetting my camera Sesh was all the way shooting with his handycam. Have not seen that yet. mmm. After resting there for a while, we started climbing up. There were totally around 750 steps and I thought I’ll stop at 400, where there is a wonderful view of the valley. But after 300 every single step was paining. I couldn’t even climb a single step after 325. So rested there and climbed till the view point. Sesh, Bala & Vikram joined me there. Me and Sesh decided another non-stop climbing from there. The steps after that were not so steep as earlier, so We did that It was 4 PM up there and we have not had our lunch yet. So we had whatever was available - dosa, omlet, biscuit, banana, pineapple, etc. Satish was flat. Along with Kalidas & Ravi, he reached the top an hour after we reached. We started there by 6.30 reached the hotel by 9. Had a good booze and slept. This was one of the best trip I ever had. A trek thats so tiring, the wonderful falls, and more importantly the talks in the cab. We were discussing about lot of things from capitaism to Kadal movie. Then came a word war between Bala, a sneka fan and Vikram & Sesh, Trisha fans. Bala said something about Trisha, which nobody expected him to say that. The rest of the journey, he was finished. That was real fun. The teasings continued in the office after everyone heard about it.

The next day, we attended the reception and as expected I was the target for everyone there As soon as the lunch was over, we went to hotel and slept. Then in the evening, we went to a good old Shiva temple near by. (I don’t go to temples, but was bored sitting in the room) Good one. From the paintings there I learnt that once Brahma had a ‘head-weight’ that he was the superior god and because of that he couldn’t create any more species. (mmm. so its not very bad, if I have any!) So for the meanwhile, Shiva sent Kamadhenu to eath as a substtute for Brahma to create lives. It came to a place in earth, where it found a Shivalingam. It worshipped and started creating. Since lots of karu’s were created from that place, the place was known as Karur! and that temple is where Kamadhenu worshipped the lingam!!! I never knew the peyar karanam of the place. Interesting story
Meanwhile, today I was looking for my duplicate bike key (Yes, I surprisingly lost it!) in my desk, I discovered a book that talks about God & science. I remember taking it to the office after completing it, so that I can blog about it. (At that time no net @ home). Then I forgot and its been there for several months. Its an interested read and will definitly blog about it. Keep waiting for it

written by Prakash G.R.

Ah! At last !!!

I’ve been planning to visit Bangi for quite a long time. Its been in planning stage for more than 6 months and it never got executed. Finally last weekend I was there in Bangalore. I’ll dedicate a separate blog entry about the drive, so this is all about the things happened in Bangalore.

Me and Ravi reached there on Friday night by 7.30 PM - (Hell with the traffic. I never thought that it will be that bad) As Saturday night we planned to have a gettogether, we have decided to booze on friday night itself. I’ve been told about the live bands in the city, so I asked about it. But then Guru said, its all small gals (almost kids)dancing around there and we won’t be enjoying it. Ok. Then decided to booze at home. Had to push hard for the second large of the Bacardi. Then slept well. Sat morning, UG mate Raja came. He has not even changed a bit. He looks, weights, talks the same, as he was before 5 yrs!!! Then we all went to ‘Forum’.

Wow, is the only word I would say about that place. It was exactly like a mall in the US. Spacious, costly and all kind of shops were there - including theatres. Don’t even try to compare it with Spencers. In Spencers you have to find a place for parking and then insert your bike in the line somehow and it will be in the sun. Here for the same 5 bucks they give you a covered bike parking where they have marks for parking - something which I’ve seen only for cars. Had Pizza in Pizza Hut and visited Bose, Apple and Landmark. Then guys proceeded for a movie - ‘Thirupaachi’, while I was on my way to meet Kavithai. Went to Coffee day and then to Tata book store in the IISC. The word Garden city suddenly strikes your mind, once you enter the campus. Its full of greenery up there. All the roads are named after some tree. If its Gulmohar marg, then the both side of the roads, you will see Gulmohar trees lined up. Dropped her at her office and then back for the dinner.

12 people came for the gettogether. Srihari has taken his fiancee and Paddy her hubby. After reading his blogs, I had drawn a picture of him in my mind. I imagined a typical GNU guy - funny T-Shirt, all-peter-talks, probably pony hair style, etc. To my surprise, he was a very normal and easy moving person. With all usual teasing and talks, the dinner ended by 10 PM. When we went home, my Super Senior Sakthi and Sub Jun Amar has already opened up the other Bacardi bottle, which we didn’t complete on friday. Joined the party. OK. Good sleep.

Sunday was action packed Decided to drive to Megadhatta which is around 100 kms away from Bangalore. Six of us in three vehicles went there. On the way, we have to pay a fine of 500 bucks as Ravi’s bike is not insured We have to drive across a river to reach the destination. When we finally arrived at the place, it was like a mini Grand Canyon!!! The view was exciting. Spent some time there, took some photos and drove back. When crossing the river, Srihari somehow didn’t properly raise the accelerator. Result? Engine was switched off; water went into silencer; (Thanks da Srihari - I was thinking of cleaning the silencer and now you did that - Sakthi) and we have to lift the bike 90 degrees and hold it till silencer got dry It was simply fun. Then we went to a falls, which was not worth watching. Evening we returned town and then went to Paddy’s home for snacks. Returned home and was very tired. Thought would take two parcel idlyies and sleep, but then guys pulled me to a pub. Four large Vodka added to the tiredness, I was fully out of control. I didn’t have any hope to get up till next noon. Surprisingly, I woke up early!!! Met Eash and Madhesh and the drove back home
Thinking of what has changed and what not in Bangalore:

(*) Sakthi: Sample 1 - Sakthi: “Machi Guru avanga appa mathiriye oru doctor ponna kalyanam pannanumnu nenaikaran”. I know he wanted to marry a Doc, but never know that his mom is a doctor. Sakthi: “illada, avanga amma doctor illa, thatha doctor, so avanga doctor ponnu thana?”. Eeerrrrrrr Sample 2 - Me: “Sakthi, Sasthri Nagar ikku eppadi poganum?” The place sounded familiar so it should be some well known area and I was wondering why he is thinking! Sakthi: “So, nee antha Aditi Technologiesla work pannara namma subjuns- juns ponna parka pora?” Wow! I didnt even knew that she was working in Aditi!! mmmm. ivan thiruntha minimum rendu moonu genmam venum.
(*) Dogs: Looks like the dogs population is reduced !!!
(*) Traffic: Good they have a flyover in the diary circle and also in the Hosur road in Madiwala. Apart from that no big change. Same stupid driving & traffic
(*) Crime rate: Still alarming Guys say, they steal petrol from the bikes parked in houses !!!
(*) The voice at railway station: I really wanted to hear it, but then I went in a bike

written by Prakash G.R.