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Part 3:

# Saw these movies: Great Escape, Where Eagles Dare, Green Mile, No man’s land, Saving Private Ryan, Silence of the Lambs.

Silence of Lambs was very gripping and good story telling. Though I did not clearly understand the climax - was the person she searching happened to be main criminal - was it a just co-incidence ?

What an acting. Just less than 15 minutes of acting got Anthony Hopkins an Oscar.

# Went to Ooty, Coonor. Travelled in the Chayya Chayya train. Had great fun. Clicked lot of pics.

# Had been to Wide Angle Photography exhibition.

# Sholay details on flixter was mixed up and screwed up. I mailed and they corrected

# Enjoying facebook. Nice to see orkut changes too, but trying not to use orkut. FB is like all you want to know about me - twitter is there, flixter is there, songs i like is there, goodreads is linked there, pics uploaded would be notified there plus for playing games.

# It took few seconds before I realized it was DURGAMBA which I read as DURGA MBA !

# too many spam is coming into inbox these days in gmail contrary to good old days of gmail which combated spam well..what changed ?!

# Migrated my pics to flickr from yahoo photos. Flickr looks so vast..took time to learn the terminologies. They are offering 3 months pro - unlimited upload..thought of taking backup of all my pics. They said only 3 albums will be visible if I dont upgrade. But they also said my photos submitted to group pool will remain - I created pools, will submit photos to that and they will be seen after not upgrading ! Rangoli kelage nusulodu antaralla…

# Enjoyed the trashing reviews of Aag

# What I want: “Note this” in Google reader.Other way round-sharing the notebook items in reader has 1 drawback-doesn’t readily show source.

# Attended a very interesting and thought provoking talk by Prof Sadagopan who had come to our office. He mixed humour, real life examples, facts, knowledge and it was a refreshing experience. I still remember some of his points in good detail, feel bad that I didn’t put down most of the talk on the same day.

# Wrote lot of private post-like mails. ( But feel bad for not managing to write about Coonor trip & team outing in detail )

# No more long posts. Might even convert my twitter updates into posts.

Part 2:

# I had been to Flower Show at Lalbagh - solely for the reason of photographing flowers. I am not sure if I am too happy with my photos, however here are they for your viewing pleasure. Why do “Macro” mode results in photos that look as though they are painted in water colour ?

# Went to PESIT college for Independence Day, attended flag hoisting and sang National Anthem. Now, how many of you did/can do that ? DJ’s speech was not very original, he just read out a speech by Narayana Murthy. Though it made me look for it on the net link, it was not in usual DJ’s style. “I always look for what is in it for me” he said, “and if one person among this audience becomes like one of the visionaries mentioned in the inspiring speech, that is enough for me”. Like any dreamy eyed teenager, some of us thought he was referring to us itself ( I still have to get the feeling that I am not a teenager any longer, sigh !) . The article deserves a read.

# There were lot of flowers in the garden and I regret not having carried the camera with me.

# Another best thing done on the Independence Day was to watch “Chak De”. Some detailed thoughts will follow in next post. 

# Also watched Checkmate play at RS on Independence Day. Some comments will follow after Chak De review.

# RBoTaH will continue after those posts

# Despite being in the company for more than 3 months, I had spoken only to 3 or 4 people and this occasion was helpful to know the team and to know what others are doing. I also enjoyed the activities/games. I wanted to write a long write-up in my usual style and was sure I could impress and surprise everyone in the team - it has happened quite often that I am not boasting - but I could never manage time. Something or the other came up. When it comes actual life - watching movies and meeting friends and meeting dentist - I never allow my self interest - like getting praises and impressing others - to take a higher priority which was why I could never sit down to write a decent write-up. However I had jotted down some stuff which I had sent to a friend, let me reproduce that here :

From office we had been to team building… had good fun. Will try ( I’m dead tired and it takes hell lot of time to write) to write a Minutes of Meeting and if done will send it to you.
Otherwise important highlights are :
1. We built a raft and we did rafting on it. It was a quiet lake, nevertheless, I was instrumental in our team’s race winning. Proud of myself
2. I could crack few funny stuff and impressed few people.
3. Snipped [Rant]
4. Did a boring bonfire. No music. People sang and some had real good singing talents. Oriya, Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil , Konkani, Bengali, Kannada & English songs were sung !
5. Got to know who are in our team. The team was only 30 but even after 3 months of joining I knew only 3 ppl in our team. It looks like the company environment problem and every other person was frustrated and they were also disappointed with this.
6. I climbed and got down a wall which was more than 10 ft high. I still don’t believe that I did that. Of course lot of support was there on both sides. Remember we were in pitch dark jungle.
7. We went on a sort of night trekking but it was just a walk. I noticed lot of people are too scared with forest and nature but I was very brave until I faced that human made 10 ft high wall.
8. I was smart in many games where I gave nice suggestions, and where I got the idea very fast, co-ordinated well etc. But in one game I did very bad.

# Looking back, if there were two things that stand out, two is less and difficult number, it should be climbing the wall. I had never climbed and never wanted to do and would never want to. But when life offers only two choices and rule out one choice, I had to agree to climb the wall. It must be my most horrific moment in my recent life. That tells what a luxurious life I lead. A good photo of me looking as if it was all over for me, would be posted soon. The second event that could stand out was building the raft and I almost single handedly winning the rafting race for my team. *&^%@ to those who made fun of my weight.

# To do: upload few pics and link to them. Especially of climbing the wall and of the rafting.

Part 1:

# Alert : Might turn out to be a loong post. Feel free to skip if you want to miss out on my thoughts and happenings in my life, but anyways if you expect anything greater than that on this blog, you are bound to be disappointed. So read on

# I guess I have to yet again resort to Random Bursts of Thoughts and Happenings ( RBoTaH ) format solely for not having enough time immediately to update. Also I want to update everything in the same chronological order that they happen and which is why sometimes even though there is enough urge to write, I procrastinate till I write about the previous event. Let me say, I don’t enjoy myself this style of mixing too many things in a single post, but I want to record everything for posterity purposes - when I become rich and famous, writing a separate biography would be a burden, no ?

# On the other hand, it is good, I tell myself, that I have been so occupied ( and doing bloggable stuff ) that I delay doing something - something that I enjoy - blogging / updating for my well wishers ( thats you! ). See, I don’t always talk about me.

# Again, this post would be just an index for forthcoming posts, if time and mood permits.

# So where was I last time ? After that, I had been on a 2 day team building from company to a nearby place called Wonder Valley. It was a true “team building” - because we had lot of activities and learning. It was superbly handled by a firm called “Navgati”. Will put up a post next. RBoTaH will continue after the break!

Since the twitter daily update isn’t happening, some random bursts of thoughts and activities over a last few days:

# Feedburner’s link splicer does not have support to Google reader shared items ??!! It has for bloglines, yahoo..but despite Feedburner is now Google’s, there is no support for Google ?! Wake up !!

# While at it, a daily twitter digest splicing would be great, and of course the option to use more than one splicing !

# While at it, ok, check out next post.

# We agree to disagree & We disagree to agree - both sentences mean same, no ?

# Me having pownce invites…anyone wants ?

# Number of chars supported by twitter should have been longer or customizable ..140 is too less for my random bursts of thoughts !

# For real-time random bursts of thoughts (and fortunately for you and unfortunately for me - restricted to 140 letters) follow me on twitter

# Paapa HR ->http://tinyurl.com/26n6bm

# Life is the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations. Herbert Spencer

# A wounded deer leaps the highest. Emily Dickinson

# Last weekend was super failure weekend - wanted to attend bloggers’ meet, lost the way, searched and went an hour or more late. Twas at Brewhaha, nice ambience. Wanted to watch a play, FPS, went few hours early and returned. Twas at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, first time there, the audi looks HUGE, should be great fun to watch a play.

# ”We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them.” Charles Caleb Colton

# Suffered from terrible cold and bunked office 1 day - and I think this the first leave I have taken for being sick since I started working !

# It is not what we learn in conversation that enriches us. It is the elation that comes of swift contact with tingling currents of thought.

# Do not, on a rainy day, ask your child what he feels like doing, because I assure you that what he feels like doing, you won’t feel like watching - Fran Lebowitz.

# Could not fill IT returns online. ( Submitting the acknowledgement physically can not be considered as online filling). The digital signature was not accepted for being zombie (not finding parent authentication). Anyone filled successfully ?

# added odiogo plugin to blog - another listen to me button for posts ! has male voice and sounded better than talkr

# ”I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there.” Herb Caen

# Played 28 in office for many rounds !

# Ppl always use “busy” to mean they are doing something they didn’t wish to do.what is the word for the being busy with what one likes to do.

# In my todo list, the first and last items are : Read and Finish things in todo list.

# It goes without mentioning that I don’t even start with the to do list - first point itself is a huge put-off !

# Play: Work that you enjoy doing for nothing. Evan Esar // Work: Game you hate playing even if you are rewarded at the end - Rk

# Gossiping and lying go hand in hand. Proverb

# Like facebook. Though I had a login few eras ago, I had not bothered to check it out. With apps and all, it looks cool now. I will repeat again - I hate orkut.

# Seeing all these facebook apps, I think facebook is moving to become first adress and one stop for most normal chaps. Facebook = Internet!

# Office guys blocked the sites I use one by one - *.blogspot, wp.com are the latest entries. Thankfully Reader is not blocked so far.

# ”A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

# A classic is a book that doesn’t have to be written again. Carl Van Doren

# RGV’s Sholay is renamed to RGV ki Aag after fight in high court..can’t use names of Basanti and Gabbar Singh ..Super . I know it does not make big difference with the last minute name change but then, a small relief!

# Pownce is blocked in office..it wasn’t blocked last week..now that I have an account it is blocked 09:56 AM July 16, 2007

# Yesterday saw Satyavan savitri..remake of maine pyar kyon kiya..review later 09:55 AM July 16, 2007

# GM:I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. Abraham Lincoln

# Wrote few (2 in particular) private-post of event/get-together targeted towards the relevant group of friends, and not to mention - they were super hits. More importantly the writing flow was super smooth after a long time And I think my such write-ups - covering events - are way better than the other ones I do. 

# played badminton after a looooooong time .. 09:55 AM July 15, 2007

# Osome day : picnic to shivanasamudra and talakaadu 09:03 PM July 14, 2007

# Becoming a star may not be your destiny, but being the best that you can be is a goal that you can set for yourselves.Bryan Lindsey

# http://tinyurl.com/2co5fx 12:04 PM July 12, 2007

# Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it. Tom Lehrer 09:31 AM July 12, 2007

# To prev Gm quote, Skv replied “Life is like a trumpet. Why care what others think? Blow it to your heart’s content” My email signature changed.

# ”to kill a mocking bird” is not taking off…will try few more times, if it does not it will join the group of catch22 & pride&prejudice 07:59 PM July 11, 2007

# My feed subscribers’ count was 31 but it now looks like its only 14 (probably a correct figure as I had guessed earlier too). Now after this long a post, I think it will decrease even further !

# I love micro-blogging.

• Reading “iphone hacked” articles #
• Advertising Age - Digital - 23-Year-Old Mark Zuckerberg Has Google Sweating: What’s the only company that..http://tinyurl.com/38jtkb#
• “to kill a mocking bird” is not taking off…will try few more times, if it does not it will join the group of catch22 & pride&prejudice #
• Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it. Tom Lehrer #
• To prev Gm quote, Skv replied “Life is like a trumpet. Why care what others think?Blow it to your heart’content” My email sig changd to it #
• iPhone hacking as summer project & as a toy Link #
• Fake e-mail about Bangalore techie transfering traffic fine through laptop Link #
• Becoming a star may not be your destiny, but being the best that you can be is a goal that you can set for yourselves.Bryan Lindsey #

• twitter tools plugin is repeating the posts and that too without all the tweets of the day… disabled it for now #
• can’t believe i did a full length post on HR & his topi ! looks like i rediscovered that touch for few minutes. post will be up 2nite #
• good weekend:saw hr’s topi, went to amoeba (didnt bowl) and hung out with old pals, cleaned up the cds, saw tv shows&wimbledon, wrote posts #
• … if we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin. Ivan Turgenev #
• Damn,topi is avlbl on moviewalah I should stick to my decision to avoid hindi&english films on bigscreen!Only plays&kannada movies now on #

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• Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them. Stone W Clemen #

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• “It doesn’t matter how slow you go as long as you do not stop” - Confucius #

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• Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have. Marva Collins #

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• “The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.”
  Nicolas Butler #

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• Good Morning: We easily pardon an offense we had part in. Juoy #

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• http://tinyurl.com/27rzc8
  ROFL ! #
• Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue-to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak. Socrates #
• @sripathikamath : Signed up for pownce invite..looks good…from Kevin of Digg ! #

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• Google analytics finally working (different plugin though)#
• @Sudhakar: whats SN? #
• @sripathikamath: thats right, there is another person with username rk #
• “There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.” George Santayana #

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• Good Morning: “Winning may not be everything, but losing has little to recommend it.” Dianne Feinstein #
• Lunch with client. Burp! Sleepy now. #
• I *totally* appreciate the GD being a part of interviews. Some people can *never* listen to others nor shut-up but enjoy shouting in meeting #

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• jaiku - comments = twitter + twitterfeed #
• @nvnbk: now that you are on jaiku, check twitku.com ! #
• @Sudhakar: Bitte schoen :), u configured your mobile to recieve updates ? u following me ? #
• Good Morning: As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death. George Bernard Shaw #
• G’gle calendar now sends sms notifications (Bsnl worked even though not mentioned) Sigh! I had almost decided to stop using mobile … #

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• Good Morning: It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. Decouvertes #
• @nvnbk: firewall issue btw, the sms went today and 5 MORE rs cut but still it is not activated here. i give up. lucky u. damn. #

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• Updated Wp to 2.2.1. Cheated by not deactivating plugins and repeated posts on main page is the punishment #

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Fireflies Music Festival:
Attended the whole night music festival. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was good to get a chance to look at and hear various instruments – one standing tall at 7-8 feet, another instrument whose playing is declining. The different varieties of music – jazz , bawl, nadaswaram, classical, western classical, qawwali etc were a joy to ears. If only I had learnt music, I could have enjoyed it even more. Few of them got once-more requests and they continued much more than their allotted time. Overall, a different, good experience.
Courtesy:Jace.
Last year’s report and photos. This year’s report and photos

Courtesy
A visit to Mocha: It was a plan come true after almost 1 year. When the office was near to the place, we planned several times but none materialised. Finally, had to change the company (no, not the meaning that strikes first) and it finally worked out.

We went around 10 to the place. The place was simply very different than the ones I usually frequent. It was all laid back, albeit with posh people - mostly teenagers and some foreigners. It almost looked like a lazy bar but was vibrant with colours and energy (not a measurable description, but explanation given on request).

There were two kinds of locations available. One in the outside garden-like-setup, where a family crowd or a formal get-together could hang out. The bushes all around and with unconventional seating arrangement - stone benches, wooden benches, a swing, bamboo (betta) chairs. A closed hut like structures (like in Dhaba) or an open umbrella (like in juice corners) were also available. There were other forms of seats like auto rickshaw’s , car’s put around a table on one end. (Rangashankara had lot of such items) A small stream of water flowing added to the look of a setting in nature. Colourful lights around was a plus along with the natural wind. Due to the fear of mosquitoes we instead went inside.

There it was more of a typical hukka joint. The red curtains, the dress of waiters and the dark place looked like a setting in a Mahal. The seating here was casual - one could either sit on mattresses on the floor or one could use the more formal chairs. A big group of teenagers sat on each other and occupied half the space that otherwise was required. They had roaring fun but they quit gracefully after their time (which was quite less considering we were there for more time). Along with the lack of light (intentional), the place was quite smoky - one thing I did not enjoy- which could have been avoided with better ventilation (or some other technique). A nice soft music was being played (both outside and inside) which was non-intrusive and added to the overall ambiance.

We had a flavoured one and man didn’t it taste good! I was new to it but the fragrance remained with me even days after.

And “the kick” eluded me, as always. (I guess it wasn’t supposed to kick in the first place).

Thanks AB for a memorable evening (and few additions to this report!)

Goa Year End Bash

New year eve was spent in Goa. A sincere attempt to record the happenings for historical records is being done now (after a month of the tour)! To go to the Goa like the DCH way, mostly with those whom the DCH was watched was a wish since long. No one knows how many times it was planned/discussed only to be dropped later. This time the plan was executed without any hassles.

Also I had to keep up the appointment with Goa I had made that I would re-visit it in another 3 years or so. Unfortunately no other takers of the oath could join me as they are in US

The planning started almost from November 1st week. As usual these days, most of the discussion happened over mail, starting from the kick-off to sign-off. Even if we were planning 2 months in advance, the accommodation was a big question mark, luckily sorted out by a high-profile contact Skv had The leaves were the easiest part (for me as usual and I guess it was easy for others too.)

Mode of transport was zeroed in on Car basically to emulate DCH. (Thank Farhan, he did not choose a helicopter !). With our own car (Skv’s actually), the next big concern was over the route to be taken to reach Goa and the places to be visited en-route.

Looking up on net gave us few suggestions and more confusions. Few alternatives were discussed:

1. bangalore to dharwad and then to panaji via londa

2. Try taking the Toll Road which starts just before Hubli Town and then take the Karwar Route (u need to take a left at one of the interchanges) which is smooth as silk and awesome scenery next to you as u drive

3. The recommended route is via Tumkur, Davanagere, Hubli, karwar and Margao. Around 580 km. Best road

4.Bangalore - Tumkur - Chirtradurga - Harihar - Hubli - Karwar - Madgoan - Panaji - Goa -Total distance 680 km

1 was decided at the nth minute due to the apparent advantages it had over others (shorter distance was the compelling factor I guess). So on 29th morning we started at around 6:30 AM and most of the day was spent in traveling. Various matters were discussed including Karnataka’s politics, songs, movies, girls, respect, culture, perception, cricket, videos etc and the highlight being Dhoom 2 (also thanks to Cineblitz’s pun on the movie which made the laughs explode).

The road was so bad b/n Dharwad and Goa and there were absolutely no road at many places and this was, after all, NH4A! Once we crossed Karnataka-Goa border, the road was good. The roads on Karnataka are heavily damaged and completely unmotorable (Skv kept one eye on the road and the other on the fuel indicator…no peterol bunk for a long stretch …we were getting prepared to push the car thru the road in the dark night!)
At around 9:45 we made to the rooms near Meeramir beach in Panaji. We inaugurated our beach visit program then and there by going to Miramir beach and staying till 12:30

30th:

We had planned to go to the dolphin’s show which is possible only on Saturday and Tuesdays. We had to get ready by 8:00 for the dolphin show and we woke up at 9. So thus dolphins missed to see 4 amazing characters that had come all the way from Bangalore. Breakfast was had and we were beginning to see the hospitality from the servers in hotels in goa, more about that later. Other highlight was the curd worth rs 40.

Our next interest was in Casino on the cruise. It is a whole night package with dinner and we just barged in and ordered the tickets. The experienced receptionist that she was, asked whether we knew the prices. We left from there, a 3k special price for only these 5 days was unaffordable, the normal prices for other days of the year being as low as 1300.

We then immediately booked for the night cruise (and mistake we later realized that we should have booked for evening one.)

Thus with 2 plans flopped, we next went to Aguada fort (around 12). Sk’s camera got life from here after. It’s a different topic that we started addressing him by 12x by 4x (zoom of his camera). Next stop was at Candolin beach. We went on para-sailing and jet skiing (again, on the lines of DCH). Para-sailing was one wonderful-memorable experience. Now I have got little courage to do the sky diving! If I were not to hold and pull the ropes, I could have enjoyed it even more. I had felt, even if every other thing does not happen as planned, this one sport has made the tour paisa-vasool.

The car key along with autocop, which too played water sports in Skv’s pockets, had by now become wet and could not communicate to the car that we were the rightful owner of the car. Since autocop could not be turned off, once the door was opened, the alarm started to shout. We had to cut the wire of the alarm speaker by opening the front bonet.

We then tried to book for the 31st night disco, but the mambos and titos was a bit costly and anyways we were told pre-booking is not necessary. On the way back from here we saw the remains of a very tragic accident - scorpio after hitting tree which was on the wrong side reduced to its half, car which was on the opposite direction probably got hit by the scorpio reduced to its 3/4th, and a man laid on ground with face fully covered with blood. We were not able to comprehend the way the accident might have happened too.

Post lunch we went to play Frisbee at Miramar beach.

There wasn’t much fun in the cruise, we just enjoyed the ride, talk and gossips.

The already eventful day hasn’t yet seen the end. We wanted to go to the ingos night bazaar shopping. On the way, we were royally misguided by a girl, with a mischievious smile! The smile gave away about it, but not till we had already gone in wrong direction for some time. On the way to shopping, the traffic moved as slowly as it could, and we barely made a km after 20 minutes or so. A brilliant idea struct to park the car in a near by place which though made us walk for 2 kms, saved us nearly an hour or more. The entire 2-3 km stretch were cars.

Ingos was expected to be the bazaar where electronics articles among other things were sold at a throwaway price.We didn’t go to Ingos, did not notice the name and entered the first bazaar available. The shopping stalls was not any special – usual tour articles with exaggerated prices – mainly to suit/target $people and ladies. We bought shades here.

31st:

We slept at around 2 AM and the day started late, as usual. We started with the visit to DCH fort. Its fort chepora but now widely known as DCH fort itself. During my earlier visit, we had climbed this from Vagator beach and this time we first went to the fort by the other direction.

Next stop was at vagator beach. Photos. Beach. Fun.

We then had a very relishing food (@garden valley restaurant). Here the soup was served at the end and Lassi at the beginning, but the food was very good. Had a time like the old times’ visits to Dhabas.

While many events we wanted to emulate from DCH happened quite easily, an unexpected oppurtunity arose when we saw a train coming in full speed and before it crossed the overhead bridge we wanted to go through it. Train was fast and in same style, we encouraged the man on steering. The car speeded up and won the race and huge enjoyment resulted. It happened so fast that the whole scene – we saw the train, we recognized the oppurtunity, the race was a close call- was unbelievable and breath-holding and one of my favorite moments of the tour.

We went to Anjuna beach in the evening and here the sunset was seen. On the way to the beach, a drug deal happening very casually was witnessed. Photos were taken in the beach, enjoyment of playing in the beach happened.

Till now the plan to spend the night, “the night of 31st dec”, was not made and I was all prepared for any happening/un-happening and disappointment. Thanks to our host, we got passes for the “Scintilla 2007″. We had seen the venue when we tried booking for the casino and luckily it was very near to our stay. Anywhere farther would have proved unpleasant with the traffic involved that day.

Scintilla was just perfect for our varied tastes. We had a relishing menu; fire-dance, troupe dance, live music (all the way flown from Dubai it seems, it was intolerable to say the least and were stopped soon enough) was performed, DJ’s music and an irritating announcer were present. Many people danced and enjoyed the time – particularly a girl in red, a small kid, that kid’s parents, an old man and his young son/grandson danced very well. The merry happened till around 2 Am after which we went and had coffee.

1st:

The day started almost at afternoon. We went to Baga beach and slept on the beach (for a change, this time I did not sleep on the sand but rested on the cot.). Bk and I bought some gift articles here. We then paid a courtesy visit to Calungunte beach which was as crowded as the railway station and we did not even go till water.

We then went to a bakery and after delayed orders and mistakes in the bill (we were charged less than we consumed), he was cool enough to dismiss the error in the bill saying “Jaane do”.

After little rest we shopped for liquor and cashewnuts.

We then had a good dinner at Delhi Durbar amidst interesting discussions.

2nd:

While the bags were put back to the car, we expected someone to announce his stay back in goa to do “makki-paling” with Christine. Luckily no such incident happened

This day was spent in traveling but with better route now it was a pleasant experience.

We somehow escaped Goa border police but Karnataka police took bribe for carrying liquor.

Various matters were discussed including remembering dialogues of DCH, NRI lobby in US, influence of Indians in west, the usage of cars in US, China’s rates for services

Around 10 PM we reached back home.

Song of the tour : Tere Bin by Atif Aslam (Any guesses why?  ) and DCH song.

Some of the assorted recordings:

• We had funny incidents with restaurants many times. The waiters were generally very fast.
  • First time we had to wait a long time for the bill and when we said we were in hurry, he immediately started to clean our unfinished plates !
  • In another place, we were looking around and guessing what might be available to eat. One confirmed thali as many were having it and other guessed pavbhaji too as it was getting prepared in the entrance. Once the waiter came to our place, for formality we asked what was avaiable. He said Thali, Paavbhaji and stopped after that. We were expecting more items. He was not ready to take any orders that took more time and since we had discussed these two (we guess he heard us), he had to tell these two but then stopped immediately. The hotel was so crowded that by the time 2 of us washed our hands and returned the seats were occupied. We went out and waited for the other 2 people. When they too came out, we could have easily left, without paying the bill. The good guys that we are, we called the waiter and asked him bill, he saw us interrogatively and the question was a brilliant-n-innocent one liner “Koun Dega?”. We were so tempted to point at the other 4 ppl who had occupied our seats and leave from there !!
  • Again during breakfast, the sauce plate was taken away even while we were left with Buns. So when we said “By the time we say D in done, they would have picked up the plates”. Just then, right when we were saying that, right exactly when we said D, waiter appearing from nowhere had picked up another plate right under our nose. The timing was so unbelievably perfect that, we could not resist bursting into loudest laughter. (Causing confusion to them, who cares. In an unknown place we don’t mind the tag of mad guys too !)
  • In the bakery the other day, we waited so much to initially place the order and then to pay the bill. The only person in the coutner was taking orders, packing things, taking bill and was very busy with 2 heavy orders. He was not bothered to even look at us. But we were very reluctant to pay the bill (the good guys that we are), and waited impatiently. Finally when the bill was made, we had to give some amoung for correct change. When we told we didn’t have the change, he said “jaane do jaane do” He had missed out on one item that we had bought. We pointed it out and took pains to make him understand he should be paid more, again he said with such indifference “jaane do jaane do” I guess he just wanted us out of the bakery!
• Other Strange people whose memory put smile on our faces :
  • On a night while driving we asked for directions to a traffic constable who was in half sleep, standing, and probably drunk. He opened his eyes with effort and showed us the direction, and the eyes were almost wanting to shut down again and we asked another direction. An irritated person “Ek bar bola na…seede jao”.
  • On the way to bazaar, we asked a person for direction. He said pointing to the roadside repair(in english) in full enthusiasm “5 years. from 5 years this is a construction site.” He was drunk too.
  • A gang of girls and boys were standing in the intersection of the road that was heavily crowded on one way. We asked her for direction towards the shopping bazaar, she so confidently pointed to the side where traffic was free, and we happily cruised along. With confidence she had given a mischievious smile too. On reconfirming with another person we realized that we were going the wrong way and if we had taken the right direction at the intersection we could have saved a km or more (equivalent to 30 or more minutes in that heavy traffic).
    I was so very impressed with such different, dream sleep-walking people, that I wished greatly to ask local on-goers for directions to Australia via road in all seriousness. Some sanity (or probably the esteem company I kept) stopped me from doing that.

As much as I wanted to embed photos, this writing itself has taken a large amount of time. I will leave with the link. Here
Some links :
We stayed here
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061121000833AAPXEtu
http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/maharashtra/maharashtratourist.htm
http://www.nivalink.com/goa/goabreaks.html
http://www.spjimr.org/alumni/creativecorner.asp
http://maps.live.com/?v=2&rtp=pos.k4tty9qfytpx_Bangalore~pos.kkftj9q4jb2k_Panaji
http://www.bsmotoring.com/bsm/wcms/en/home/roads/Goa-Bangalore-060927.html;jsessionid=527CD53A31E84ECDE3E0712FBCF7DA90

Team outing which was getting postponed for nearly an year finally happened on Aug 5th. A brief minutes of meeting.
Except for the last minute drop outs, most of us arrived on time and prepared (with gifts, pots etc). We left for Muttukadu in 2 vehicles. In groups we went boating. for half an hour or so.

Had tea and left for TTDC Beach Resort. Now all of us were in the same bus, enthu picked up, ppl sung and danced.Noise was made.

It was the beginning of play time. Dog and bone was played first. Just playing for the participation sake is passe, now its the era of fierce competition and only winning matters. Teams , named as Bow-bow and Hijackers, fought for each point, confused others, got confused, won, lost - all in the game’s name. Finally posed for photos with coveted trophies (chocolates). I was the scorer.

That was followed by another game - to hit the hanging pot, blind folded. The on-lookers had the maximum fun at the expense of blind folded participants who were always misguided by the crowd. Sensing that the prizes will remain unclaimed, some of them were then guided to the pots.

A brief display of team members’ musical talents followed. To the beats, some danced. Next on the list was much awaited dine-wine session. Food and drinks were had to heart’s content.

Two professional musicians were the invited surprise guests of the afternoon. They enthralled the team with drums. Some talents in the team took up the sticks and to their background music, some other hidden talents picked up the mic and lent their voices to the songs. Audio team was now “creating” music.

People then left to swimming pool/ beach. On their return, housie-housie was played.(I was co-organizer of the event). After two rounds of the game and after decorated prizes were given away, it was time to present the newly married couples with gifts. They thanked and praised the day-out.

The team’s energy reserve and enthu was at display again during the return journey. They danced and sang all the way back.
Click on the images for clarity.

Per my dreams and wishes, I was planning for a Singapore trip during May end. When that was dropped, I hoped for a Andaman tour. And when that too could not happen, to compensate, a Madikeri tour was planned.

But this tour, I did not think would be go so un-smooth. The start itself was an omen of sorts. When I started from Chennai to Bangalore, I and my colleague(RP) reached railway station, after a leisurely dinner at around 11:45, station was like never before. Almost empty station and we had tickets for 9:45 train. As if that was not enough, we didn’t have enough money. The CorpBank ATM had communication failure. ICICI Atm was nowhere to be seen. I was ready to go back, sleep and catch next day morning’s train. RP had other plans. We took an auto to Koyambedu, searched for ATM, went to private bus station which too was empty, took a bus to Vellore, and then to Chittor. Twas 6:30 in Chittor via another bus to Blore and were at home by 11.Huh!

If one thing that made the journey endurable, other than the wind blowing through window less buses, was the talk about Kajol. RP, who was once a big fan, remembered his old days.

Detailed plan about the places to be covered, route to be taken, distance and duration details, alternate routes, alternate options were all thought out. We decided to cover the places in a normal 3 day Madikeri tour and then proceed with our own plan. Some additional places were kept in mind if we had time.

A day before starting, we heard that it is raining heavily in Kundapur. If we face problem, we decided to change the plan but however start with the tour. So early morning, we started after the usual delay by driver. Confirmed with him that there is a MP3 player, I took my CDs and started to Srirangapattana.

Visited Nimishamba temple, Ranganatha Temple (which IMO was very good), Mini Golgumbaz, Sangama and proceeded towards Ranganatittu. (Except for Ranganatittu rest were driver’s choices. If we didnt object he could have gone to Mysore and then proceeded to Kodaikanal, his favorite route apparently) Just before we could start boating, it started to rain. We decided to wait and after around half an hour we went on boat and saw birds and crocodiles from a closer proximity. This was the first time rain decided to play with us, trying to discourage us and the game continued through out the tour.
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Off we went to Bylakuppe and visited Golden Temple/Buddhist monastery. Huge statues are seen to be believed. Prayer hall was serene.
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Went to Nisargadhama. 958 It is a forest department run rest house. It is kind of natural island formed due to the splitting of river. The NDhama has lot of trees chiefly Bamboo. There are cottages available and is a good place for a quiet weekend getaway. It has a small canteen, deer park, boating and children play area. The it-might-rain-now climate was a wonderful feeling. The colour of river water was dark brown indicating the heavy rainfall that was happening in the area we were next supposed to go.

Halted at Kushalnagar.
Morning first stop was Harangi Dam. As the water has not yet raised, it was no special attraction. But I must recall, this dam is much better visit than we did during Waynad.

Dubbare forest is an elephant camp. It is a habitat for 14 elephants. And in normal days, one can feed the elephants, bathe them, ride on them. But during rains, no activity is allowed and we just ’saw’ an elephant.
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By now we were hearing that it is not possible to go to Talacauvery and to Bhagamandala due to blocked roads due to heavy rainfall. These were the two places that were in our list.

A customary visit to Fort and Raja seat(which is a neat relaxation place during evening I guess.) happened and we proceeded towards Bhagamandala. After we enquired from the bus returning from Bhagamandala, we felt there was no point in trying. I suddenly remembered that we can plan to Padi Iguttappa temple which is as far as BM. While going towards it we found many Iguttappas(later came to know that there are 3 Igguttappas. Main one is Padi Iguttappa. Iguttappa means one who gives food. He is a form of Shiva and he is considered to be father for Kodagu and Kaveramma is mother of Kodagu). When we reached there, the temple was not yet open. But the priest stays nearby and we requested him to open the door and perform the pooja (explaining we have come from far and as we might have to return and we were running out of time). He was more than happy to oblize and he was more happier than us that we were visting the temple. He said only those with good fortune can make it and narrated several instances of people making to it accidently and people not making to the temple even though they wanted to. He also said, that if we had tried to come in the morning, it would not have been possible due to heavy rains and we were just at the right time. He performed pooja very well and even took us to his tome and served us with delicious Obbattu and coffee. He was even more delighted to know that we came to know of this temple from internet. All in all, it was a good part, unplanned surprise of our tour.

Then we returned to Madikeri and visited a Ranganatha Swamy temple. By this time it was raining too much. We halted to give us a chance to see if we could visit Tala cauvery and Bhagamandala in the morning, if the rain has stopped in the night and cleared the roads. But, in the night it rained so much again that this had to be dropped from the plan.

In the morning we set out to Abhey falls(which is wrong usage as “Abhey” itself means “Falls” in Coorg language)…as usual, while we were in car, there was no rain and it re-appeared as soon as we started walking towards the falls. Though we protected with the help of umbrellas, the breeze carried water in front of falls soaked us readily. The Abhey falls too was very brown and was jumping in such fury that I didnt like that much. It ruled out my wish to bathe in the falls too. However it was a sight to behold - the water, the colour.
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Our next destination was Kollur. This was the time we realized how bad our driver was. He was careful, thats ok but he was extremely extra careful which beat our cause and rationale of taking a professional driver. Even where normal car users go 55-60kmph, this person never crossed 40kmph average. Add to it the rain and he became extremely sluggish. By 60kmph speed, which should have been possible in a Tata Indica and on good roads, we could have made well before 12Noon. We had to reach Kollur by 1 PM to perform Pooja and we had to constantly nag driver to make him realize that. Even then he still went at 45 avg to reach at Kollur exactly at 1. Luckily entrance has been now extended till 1:30 and we were just in time to get “Darshan” and perform Pooja. We had a relishing lunch at the temple too.

Drivers, I have always had bad time with them, almost all of them. They fail to know their boundaries. Sometimes they try “to sit on head”(a Kannada phrase to say). Those who try to consider the driver one among us should be partly blamed. I always try to maintain a distance and they remain sane. Totally unrelated but related to context, I have noticed that drivers have a very bad taste for music. They love remixes(even on AR Rehman songs) like anything, that is at least acceptable if I think that slow and mellow songs might induce sleep to drivers. But this driver, not only rejected to play whatever I gave him, repeatedly played the same songs over and over again for 5 days. It was unbearable. He rejected good songs I gave as “old” and when I gave “latest” songs he rejected them simply. His choice of songs were Baazigar, QSQT, AHAT etc which were old too. Much much later, while returning to Bangalore finally I was able to disclose the biggest mystery of his repeated playing of the songs. He had watched those movies with his gf it seems!(Now, how we got to know that info is little out of context here!).

He also had another bad habit of praising Tamil nadu places and roads over Karnataka’s. Just because he has travelled TN and Kerala, he feels they are better than Karnataka. He didn’t know the routes/direction nor knows the way to ask for it. I have faced this earlier too that drivers want to take you to place they like rather than the place you want to visit.

From Kollur we went to Murudeshwar. Since it was raining, we could not roam around well. Just a visit to temple, few photo shoots of huge Shiva statue were done with. Of course, due to rain and high tides, it was strictly warned against playing in beach:(
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From here again started our race against time with driver, rain and night not helping us at all. We reached Siddapur, from where it was not possible to take Indica to the place we wanted to go. We had little clue about the route too. Our attempt to contact our relative had failed as telephone lines were damaged due to rain. An helpful STD booth owner (luckily he knew our relatives) tried to check if anyone is going our way in a bus. So that they could accompany in our car to show the directions. But we knew that a stream blocks the road in rainy season and we preferred to take anohter vehicle. He arranged for a Trax and told him the alternate route. Past Hosangadi, my father felt we have come little far distance and driver went and asked a person in a nearby house to accompany us, as he knew our relatives.(His being there that day was also co-incidental). The roads were badly damaged due to the heavy transport of red bricks. There were also steep paths. Our co-passenger remembered that this road too has a stream and that day’s rain might make it difficult for us to cross. We went near and waited while driver and co-passenger went out to see the height of water relative to height of our vehicle. They came back and decided it is not possible to cross by vehicle. They then went to our relatives house on foot and decided to get them/ their vehicle.
Rain, slipping time, night time, we were in a area that is known for naxalites. Recently you might have heard the shoot out of naxalite, that happened near this area. We thought of so many ifs and buts that could have changed our approach but now we were stuck in middle and all that mattered was “What next” ?
Meanwhile, driver did not even know our identity and our relatives had no clue that we were visiting them. There have been instances of naxalities kidnapping etc. Since they knew the co-passenger and after a fair guess, my uncle came in his vehicle. We then crossed the stream in rain with our luggages and went to their house at 12 midnight in his vehicle which went through the fields!

Next day around afternoon we left from there and visited Kamalashile temple which is on the way. From Siddapura, we started to Sringeri. After few brief visits to relatives house near by, we visited Sharadamma temple in Sringeri. Later travelled to our grandfather’s place. Next day left to Bhadravathi after a stop at Koppa. One more uncle’s place visit and we returned to Bangalore.

Later we came to know that this rain in these districts have never been so much in last 15 years. Also, their arrival is exactly on my tour planned days! My tour which was thought to be a sight seeing was invariably converted into a semi-pilgrimage(11 temples!). The additional places added were of temples and those that got subtracted were of sight-seeing or beach spots. But nevertheless a memorable tour as usual, for 5 day travel and now I feel the rain was fun afterall

Other photos here. Most of them were taken by bro.

+ve:
5 day long tour
First time visit of many places.
Gripped in uncertainity and suspence.

-ve
Heavy rains
Bad driver
Driver not allowing to listen to our songs
Cancelled places

A quick record on my previous weekend.

It was as usual hectic with meetings but enjoyed the time.

Saturday is, again as usual, completely reserved for the family and to remain at home. No meetings this day (Not even Lord Venkatesha (@Devagiri) is given time, why care about others!). Relax, see films (Scooby Doo, Kill Bill in fast fwd mode), browsing. Oh yes, pack/eat “ellu-bella”, traditional sweet to be distributed on Sankranti.

Sunday after a smart hair cut[I feel so much better now!], it was time for Carom, Cards with my bro and meetings. First RV came home, a bit late than expected (many friends like to keep me waiting…), but wonderful time was had, showing around the house/my room/few books I have. Next it was my turn to keep DS and GP waiting. I rushed to the “My tea house”, where with DS, GP, CS , CV, SY, DN, MBK was spent rest time - with great amount of fun (as usual) and with meaningful talk too. I think I dominated the proceedings, must take care next time not to step on others’ shoes/time. Next it was a visit to SP’s house and amidst talk of past-future, some savouring (?!) of chocolates too. An unexpected barge-in visit to SP confirmed I had Monday under my dispose and control.

Monday started with an early morning jog-cum-meeting of SV, NBK. I appreciate myself for utilising the time and thinking out a slot, convenient to all parties. This will repeat!

Later it was a visit to Forum and roaming around alone first and then food at Pizza Hut joined by ex-colleagues -RS, SMS, SCR, HKR, HMR. First meet I was having after I had left, so lot of catching up with updates and listening to Germany experiences happened. Good time was had. In the second session was joined by .C,RR,VS and roamed around exchanging happenings in our lives.

Thank you, all of you.

Almost during my complete presence, broadband was down. On second thoughts, am not complaining personally, but the response and service was pathetic.

On Saturday in VGP resort, curtains were drawn to the week long festive mood and activities in the VISMERIZE event,a family outing of associates of our organization.
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Prior to the event, the preparation and celebration had been going on in the office for the past week. After having formed 4 groups of approx 50 each, each team selected a lead and named their teams. Soon after naming themselves majaa, diShoom diShoom, Remo and PODANGO, the teams started publicizing each of them by pasting posters all around. Then it was the turn of balloons, paper hangings, Christmas tree decoration, cloth banners, colorful emails, rangoli and other designs, Welcome doll, art gallery - the list of innovative decoration and publicity stunts could give professional event managers and publicity managers a complex. No stone was left unturned to make their groups famous and to have fun and to fight against other groups! Each day it was fun to notice the new surprise offerings from each group. The characteristic of all stunts were of the processions that team members made around in the office, in their team uniform, some distributing sweets and some dancing to loud music. The get up of the entire office was changed to that of a wedding hall and obviously it made call-taxi driver to exclaim - “Is this the office I am supposed to come?”. All the teams were allocated certain amount of money for the preparations and decorations. In between all this, the teams also practised with vigor and enthusiasm for the cultural activities. Not to forget that the team meetings, deliveries too continued as usual.
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So as a final day of the proceedings, VGP resort was chosen for one day hangout of associates along with their families. On arriving at resort, crowd finished breakfast and warmed up slowly playing & looting prizes at carnival game stores.

Though the dark clouds in the morning put fears about good proceedings of the events and the plan, there was pleasant dreamy weather for half the day thus allowing gathering to enjoy the time. During which the attendees were split into 4 teams Kadale kadale,Pal pal,Murukku & Inji morappa and numerous fun events were conducted. These events were designed mostly to involve family members of the associates. To say that kids and spouses got involved would be an understatement, they enjoyed thoroughly and they turned out to be fiercely competitive. Several rounds of games were entertaining as well as pure fun. The groups were just waiting for an oppurtunity to run near the stage, oppurtunity to break into dancing, oppurtunity for photo sessions!

The cricket match happened probably without many spectators as other activities and lunch happened in parallel to cricket. Sivakasi team won the match hands down after having set a target of 10 runs in as many overs by the opponents Ghazini team.

Shortly after the lunch, the awards recognizing contribution and long service were given away. The clouds which had so long observed the activities came down and caused hindrance to the further scheduled events which mainly consisted of cultural activities’ competition among the groups. After a delay though, with out withdrawing, the competition started and continued in the hall.

Group Song: majaa & diShoom diShoom were very close to each other & to the prize. While majaa got more applaud, it was presumably to splendid, unimaginable performance (dwarf dance ?- how else do I call it) that went on alongside the singing. So singing per se, diShoom diShoom might have been ahead, more so because they discarded the conventional background music and sung without it. This exposed their singing abilities - like co-ordination(sync), timing - and rightly took away the Oscar.

Dance:When the compere said PODANGO set high standards for the dance competition, I felt he was exaggerating. For me the race was already over & won by PODANGO. But great performances were given by both majaa and diShoom diShoom that it was extremely difficult to point to one team as winner. Majaa took home the Oscar.

Skit:We like and enjoy making fun of ourselves, don’t we ? This was clearly displayed in skit shows all of which referred to VSO or software industry. Each team received good cheers and laughters from audience but PODANGO & Remo were slightly ahead of others in the race to Oscar. PODANGO eventually won it.

Additional round of talent show was reduced to a no-show by the fantastic bridal round fashion show by Remo. Other teams did put up a good show - like mimicry & sounds by PODANGO, Dos and Don’ts (civic sense) silent acting by diShoom diShoom and fun show by majaa. 5 pairs of bride-bridegroom wore spectacular attire and attracted increasingly loud cheers from the crowd. Remo, swept everyone by surprise in this act which was rightly termed as stellar show by the compere, and laid their hands on oscar.

“Vismerize” the name of the event suggestion won majaa team an another Oscar.

Uniformity Oscar award was given to diShoom diShoom who not only received the attention for their dress code (military) but also stayed & moved in groups. PODANGO were in yellow shirt, sleeves folded, with lungi and looked very ethnic. majaa were with a Sherlock Homes hat and a matching black coat imprinted their names on the back and majaa icon on the front. Remo were with an unique dress printed Remo and rose, and marked lips continuing to flaunt lover boy image.They also wore a mask, put colour on hairs near forehead and tied colourful wrist straps.

“summa nachchanu irukku majaa” slogan coupled with their cheer leading won them the award for the same, though they faced stiff competition from diShoom diShoom, PODANGO and Remo.

Pre-event publicity Oscar went to diShoom diShoom.

Best team Oscar was shared by majaa and diShoom diShoom as both had won equal number of Oscars.

It was a jovial experience, with all people irrespective of their positions joining and sharing the fun. It was interesting to note Managers and Sr. Managers taking active part & even participating in the cultural activities (which meant they spent good amount of time in preparation too - given the high quality of shows). Oh! not to forget they suited the dress code perfectly & took part in the cheering process & publicizing process (procession around the office).

Footnote : 1)Some of the very few selected photos are here.
2)This is an impersonal account.
3)Click on the image for bigger versions.