Happy Diwali

The Festival of Lights is back....

Have Loads of Fun and be safe...

Chennai Tour Dairy - Day 2

To continue my Chennai - Tour Dairy...
It was raining cats and dogs when due to noise of the rain and thunder, i woke up. Not at the time of my alarm at 4:45 am but at 3:45 am. Tried sleeping again but time flew and heard the sound of my alarm ringing.
Got ready fast and got going by 6:30. Finished our work much earlier and returned back, again in the rain at 9:30 to our guest house. The work got over surprisingly quickly. We never expected to return that early...
We had missed break fast cos the timings for breakfast in the guest house was from 7:00 am to 10:30 am. Now that we returned early we headed straight to the dining hall. The guy had switched on the Ind vs Aus cricket match and Ind had just picked up the 6th Aussie wicket. We picked up the plates, made ourselves comfortable while watching the match. Luckily the day was awesomely good. Our work went on well, Ind was wining and we dint have to stay hungry till lunch, what more can we ask for...
Well after a heavy breakfast, we freshened up and i started packing my stuff as i had to leave to Bangalore in the 3:30 train... After packing most of my stuff, we headed back to the drawing hall to continue watching the cricket match... India was on the verge of a a famous win...
We couldn't expect a better setting... Around 7 Infy guys all who were strangers till some time back, On a Tuesday at around 11 in the morning, in casuals, keeping our feet up, relaxing a watching India win the match, In a guest house in Chennai and enjoying to the fullest with no work on our minds...We wanted such days to come very frequently...
It was soon realized that one guy lost his mobile in the train as it fell down from his pocket and out of the train on the railway track... He goes to register a complaint in the police station about the loss and the police guys tells him to report the matter to a station near the loss... He couldn't tell if there was a police station near some railway track, we were just lol...
Also we came to know there we 2 Bday boys there, both away from home on their Bdays and amidst a few strangers from Infy...
The journey was just getting interesting... We decided to have some fun and celebrate the Bday with all the guys in the guest house, we got a cake, got all the people assembled in the dining hall, had lunch first and then cut the cake to celebrate the Bdays.
It was fun and amazing experience...

Here are some of the snaps...

On the way back after a hurried lunch and check out from the guest house, i took a taxi with another Infy guy who was taking the same train as me...
Coincidently he studied his Engineering in the same college as some of school and college mates studied, so here again started off a conversation with a stranger and it turned out to be a lot of fun through out the journey...
Reached home at night tired but just happy to be home on a very special day, dint want to be out of home on the 21st...
Was happy to be back and relate the amazing experience i had on my tour to Chennai...
Here I had to be back at work today and had to go through the same routine again...
Chao till the next time...

CHENNAI Tour Dairy - Day 1

I had to visit Chennai for some work on Monday and returned back on Tuesday. It turned out to be a very interesting tour of 2 days for me...
So come along and join me in recollecting my very interesting 2 days...
I had to leave home early on Monday morning... caught a BMTC bus after a long time and boarded the train at the station. Well i had not traveled in a train for a longish journey for more than 5 years or more... It was very exciting. Train journeys always excite me. It is like I am back to being a small kid exploring every bit of the railways station and the train will my very much observatory eyes, just to see what is new at the station and the train from the last time i saw it. I really loved it being in that train on Monday.
Once the train started and half an our into the journey, there was an argument of sorts between a couple of college students and the luggage inspector. This got things going in our cabin. As people in our country do, try to be very much interested as to what is happening. This small argument was put to an end with the luggage inspector saying that the college students have to pay for the luggage they are carrying (which they are not supposed to carry without a proper document). Everyone was just getting back to settling down in the train that we stopped at a station - I think it was KR puram - and a family got into the train and had seats booked in the same cabin as the college students... Here things got heated up a bit and in no time the college students vented all their anger of the luggage inspector on the family. They fought for who should keep their luggage where and what not. They fought with so much ferocity and disturbed a lot of people...
That day our particular compartment had quite a few kiddos who were basically infants (less than a year old). The fight got the mothers of these babies so worried and they too were trying to calm things down to avoid their kids from waking up from their sleep or they worked that little harder to comfort their babies, praying that their kid will not wake up and anticipating that the kid would wake any moment.
The look on a guy - who was sleeping as soon as he got into the train - was worth looking at. I just couldn't stop laughing. Then some elderly people had to give their views to the college students and stop their fight.
The college students in all probability had some bad exam i guess.
The journey continued will all the vendors making very frequent trips to sell their stuff. Also since i woke up early, i very happily took the seat in the top berth and sleep. This was too good a moment. You would always want to take the top berth in a 2 tier or 3 tier train if you were a kid.

Well the journey continued and by late after noon the train chugged towards Chennai central station. I was visiting chennai after 7 years. There had to be some new experience, interesting one of course...
To continue from where I landed in chennai central...
I took a pre-paid auto and met another Infy guy going towards the guest house, we both hopped into the same auto and reached the guest house. we got into the same room and settled down by evening.
We had anticipated the weather to be hot and humid, but it turned to almost the opposite. It was chilly, raining and not so humid. That was a surprise.

Me and my roomie then went out to explore the surrounding area and couldn't resist the hot cup of Chaai and a few hot pakodas in that amazing weather... We then returned to our guest house to hear that India has done really well in the test match. Went to the drawing room and watched tv and we were joined by a couple of other Infy guys...
It seemed so strange cos I instantly realized that I had seen them somewhere, where I do not know. When they joined us and started conversing we found out that they too were from Bangalore. We chatted a bit, got to know each other and then went back to our rooms.
Post dinner, me and my roomie wanted to plan for the next days work and prepare ourselves, but were very often distracted and kept cracking jokes and spent almost an hour laughing about and chilling. We had enough of it and decided it was time to sleep.
We had arranged for taxis to travel the next day and My travel was early at 6:15 am. Had to wake up very early...
Keeping this in mind hoped for a good sound sleep...

Will keep you posted on Day 2, more fun and more interesting things happen...

Countdown to the Moon

The countdown to the most historic space launch by India will begin tomorrow and it will be a great achievement for the whole of India. Chandrayaan 1 will lift off around 6 am on 22nd Oct and i will be witnessing it for sure.
So guys lets have a look at where we are heading...

Hey do click the images for the actual size of image and for better view...
Some more

Hope you all will keep track of this great event... Let this one step be a stepping stone to many many such achievements by India...
Ill be logging off for a couple of days so I will start my countdown from now itself...
Enjoy

On Top of the World

Sachin Tendulkar became the highest run scorer in the history of test cricket yesterday and what a moment it was. I couldn't catch the action live as i was at work but then caught up with the highlights and it was amazing to see him raise the bat for 15 runs scored. Fireworks don't go off at day time usually but then we shouldn't keep celebrations for later right?? so there it was, the stage of 3-4 minutes of fireworks at day time to celebrate the a great achievement.
Sachin Tendulkar then crossed the 12000 run mark and this is something no one has done before...
Hope he crosses few more records...
Cheers to Sachin

Raging fire...

This image shows a raging fire. Though the hottest of them all but not a bit of damage...

Cant say what makes me write this post, but having a mind and tummy rumbling with expectancy...
Coming few weeks are going to be very important and will decide a lot of things in life...

Shift+Delete DADAgiri

DADA,as he is very well known is being forcefully removed, told to end a career, sort of given a pink slip...
sad very sad that one of the legends of Indian cricket is being shown the door this way. It is made to look like Saurav Ganguly has announced his retirement on his own terms and there is no one forcing him to do so, but the catalyst had been provided and continued to be provided by the previous set of selectors for some time now.
But hey this is not the time to feel bad about his retirement, it is the time to relish what contribution he has made to Indian cricket...
A man who showed to the world that Indians cannot be bullied on the cricket field, who showed that Indians are not losers abroad, who showed that the leader needs to lead by example, provide support to his team mates, who showed emotions on the field and said hey that is how Indians are and who cares what you think about it...
Determination is what he was known for, the spirit of fighting till he got his worth...
Who can forget the shots he played on the off side, who can forget him dancing down the track to hit a spinner out of the ground???
They thought he was long gone after his spat with guru Greg, he had to do an ad with a phrase 'Aap apne DADA ko bhule to nahi?'. How embarrassing it would have been for his to shoot for that ad and say that sentence repeatedly?
He was back and scored against all teams and now cos of one bad series, the previous selectors just provided that bit of spark to ignite the fire. They dropped him out of Irany trophy game and that was it to make him believe that he had to retire.
I cannot once forget what he made Indian team into after the days of match fixing, nor can i forget his contribution to the aggressive India that is known today. Who can forget DADA waving his shirt on the balcony of LORDS. He ruled the world of cricket with his DADAgiri for more than a decade and as every dadagiri has to come to and end, i guess DADA's DADAgiri has to come to an end as well...
I wouldn't exactly call it an end,cos he once told he wants to be India Coach one day, and knowing his determination, he will surely be back...
Well remembering the great batsman for his contribution to Indian cricket, Lets celebrate Saurav Ganguly's career in Rahul Dravid's words - 'On the Off - Side, after GOD, there is Saurav Ganguly'.