~~Back from the holy trip~~

I m back from a back breaking trip and in need of good sleep.I have uploaded few pictures for preview , will blog about each and everyone of these places later.

~~Holy(free) Trip~~

After a long time I thought of going home for a weekend,reason being my school mate's reception. When I told my mum I m coming home for the weekend,she as usual said her calendar is booked and she has planned to go on a holy trip. And she asked whether I am interested to join. Then she added that you needn't bother about anything regarding this trip ,since everything is taken care by them (ie) Travel cost is FREE, place I m going to stay is FREE, food will be given for FREE. So like a person living in Doha I can enjoy everything for FREE for next few days :))

Place we planned to visit are Kollur,Dharmasthala, Subramanya, Hornadu, Sringeri and Udupi. I like Dakshin Karnataka not for their temples but for their beautiful surroundings and wonderful people. So having very high hopes about the trip. Since photography is banned inside the temples I can say well in advance I wont be able to post those pictures in the blog.

~~Pics for the day~~

These are pictures taken in the backwaters of Kumarakom in the year 2006, when our boat got struck in this traffic jam

~~Book I read~~

When I was in British Council last weekend ,a funky book cover caught my attention and went through few pages and my instinct said it should be a good book. I took it home and finished it at a stretch. "More than love letters" by Rosy Thornton is one the kind.



Its a story of an young woman Margaret who writes about the problems faced in her constituency to her MP. And incidents happen around that changes her life. The highlight of the novel its fully written in series of letters addressing to individuals.So the novel goes on describing series of events which had happened and how it happened. As the title says its not only the letters between the hero and heroine. Like there are letters from Margaret to her friend and vice versa ,to her granny and vice versa, MP's letter to his mentor and so on. Each letter is written from the character's own perspective and slowly adds pace to the novel. Some funny letters,some sarcastic,some telling the problem faced by men and some by women.For each letter we feel as if we fit on their shoes.

Margaret's granny enjoys reading her grand daughter's letter again and again saying , phone conversation cannot be recorded but letters can be reread at any time. There are times when one can make bold statements in the letter than talking with face to face.Finally novel end with letter on why letters are important in this electronic era as a hand written message will really touch the heart than a digital one. A different novel altogether,felt good after reading it.

~~Toaster in the rumbles~~

Last weekend I was cleaning one of my grandma's cupboards,many things which were not in use were stocked there. Things from small to large utensils,forks,spoons, juice maker are few things which I took from the rumble. What caught my attention was a new bread toaster hidden inside. I asked my grandma why didn't she uses it and she replied that thing occupies the space in the kitchen.

I found a place right on top of the microwave and to have continuous use of it, I brought packs of bread,peanut butter,cheese and jam during the weekend. After a gap of more than 15 months I am back into the kitchen. Even though I have just started with making toasts something better than nothing. I packed peanut butter toast and as usual found a fan.So have to take the toast tomorrow also.

EDIT:
What is the best compliment you ever got for your cooking ?
There are quite a few appreciations I have got for my cooking experiments. The one I got for today. Here it is as told " Yummy, it takes me back to the school days,my mum used to make stuffs for me like that". Isn't it a great compliment ?

~~Memories:Trip to Chitra Sabhai~~

This is part of the trip I went to Tenkasi and Kutralam last year, I have been wanting to write about it for a long long time but procrastinating it. There are five sabhais in Tamil Nadu were Lord Shiva was supposed to have danced and all these temples have stages to acknowledge the same. The place we were supposed to go was Chitra Sabhai,other places are Porsabhai(Chidambaram),rathina sabhai(tiruvalankadu) rajatha sabhai(Madurai) and Thamira sabhai(Tirunelveli)




After we had bath at five falls, we took an auto and reached the temple.We though it was a weekend we were the only people there.There was a single guy taking care of the entire temple and was giving us strict instructions not to take picture nor carry mobiles.Raj, worried somebody will take his woodlands slippers told us he will stay outside,finally he found a safe place to hide it from anyone's eyes and then joined us.

There were beautiful paintings all around the place depicting stories like Meenakshi kalyanam,tiruvilayadal etc. It was sad to see that most of the painting were damaged by some people scribbling their name or their girl friend's name. There were other paintings which got faded away fighting with the time. It would be great if government takes steps to renovate those stuffs.


Once we came outside we relaxed at the temples pond , it was not a pond even though it was a rainy season the place was dry.Raj and Padma tried ventured inside the pond and climbed into the inner sanctrum.Its easier to go up but getting down is difficult. They got struck there for sometime and got down with great difficulty.

~~My friend's trip~~

My friend Ashwin is passionate about Japan and its lifestyle. He was planning for a trip to Japan for quite sometime and finally made it this month beginning. One of his ambition is to get a Japanese girl friend and he is working hard on learning Japanese.

He has made a video on the trip he made.

When I asked why he choose that song as the BGM he said he missed a Japanese girl during the entire trip. Also linked are few pictures he taken during the trip.

~~Things happen on road~~

Whenever I travel out and come back home safely there will be sense of relief that nothing bad happened on that day. Accidents can happen in any weird ways as possible ,most of the time it will be the fault of the driver's ,sometimes it can be the road condition or there are times when nothing is in our hands kind of situation.

Today evening I went to British Council,exchanged by book for two new books and a travel magazine. Went to Triplicane had dinner at the new Adyar Ananda Bhavan restaurant opened at that place. I started from there after nine ,since the traffic was less I was zooming all the way.Near the Egmore subway the bike in front of me got skidded out of the blue. I stopped my vehicle and went ahead lifted the man and his bike, he was also confused and trying to find the reason that his bike acted weirdly. Then we checked the road there was big patch of oil in the middle. Given the color of the oil and the color of the road and darkness of the night it would take genius to find the patch of the oil. By this time some crowd had gathered and some person took some sand from the side path and poured it over oil patch. Finding things were pretty much under the control I left the place.

Coming to think of it however safe we drive there is something which we dont have control over it and only our good Karma can save us!

~~Movie I saw~~

A good good movie to start my Friday night. Its been long time a movie had wet my eyes, "Hachiko - A dog's story" did that. A wonderful movie portraying a dog and its relation with his master.

Richard Gere finds a lost dog in the railway station and picks it home. After initial objections, his wife agrees to keep it with him. Story goes on how the dog follows him to station everyday and comes back to the station by evening to receive him. One day the dog finds his master never returns from the train. What goes on further are the scenes which will really touch your heart.The movie is taken from a dog's perspective,from the way it sees the people and how it imagines things.

This movie is based on a true story happened in Japan during 1920's ,the above picture is the statue of Hachiko erected in Shibuya station honouring its loyalty to his master.

EDIT:

I recommended this movie to whom so ever I chatted with on Friday night and saturday morning , one of friend dropped a mail about it .

machi I have read that story in my Japanese book. :) , it's in a place called Shibuya in Tokyo. They have a statue for the dog and it's called Hachiko exit (station). And it's a very famous meeting place now !

Here it is, I went there and took a pic :) , Since I knew this story, it was just awesome to be there and to take a pic !

~~Pic for the day~~

Got this from my friend !



Krishna you have to be creative like this ;)

~~Visit to crafts exhibition~~

Last Sunday I decided to stay in home due to hot weather prevailing outside.By evening I could no longer stare at the monitor I decided to take a break, called my uncle and checked whether anything interesting is going on. He said there is a crafts exhibition at one kalyana madapam nearby and it worth giving a visit there.I quickly got ready and reached his place.

After he and his family members got ready we finally left for the exhibition, once inside there were lots of show case items decorative stuffs,handicrafts of various size and shapes. I was looking something for my grandpa since he was having his birthday the same week. There were few walking sticks but I didnt want to get that one because its something which will indirectly tell he is growing older and I never wanted to him to know that. Then I finally settled down with a foot massager.




I gave him that today and told him to use that one everyday such that he can manage to go to Saravana Bhavan everyday and have his cup of coffee!

~~My quest into Strength of Materials~~

Being Ugadi half the offices in the city were closed but we worked sincerely. One good thing was I reached home early since there was comparatively less traffic. When I thought I could spend more time in my PC maybe catch a movie or something I saw my uncle seriously searching for something in the net. I asked him what he's looking for he asked me do you C Channel. I know about V channel but this was something new.



I asked him where it is used he started a funda saying that the bottom of two tyres of the truck are connected by a C channel and he needs to find the maximum force which that C channel can with stand. Then he said Computer science Engineering students would have studied Strength of Materials so its natural you haven't heard of. It was insult to a software engineering community who will never agree that they haven't heard of anything.

I said I will get the formula for him and first tried the basic software engineer's formula, searched it in google. But google's search engine usually gives a generalised result and gave me options on where I can buy C channels and there was one which advertised C Channel bearing maximum possible weight. Since the search was going no where I searched for engineering books and downloaded two PDF books and found the formula, which I didn't understand a thing.But as usual I have proven my expertise finding and getting stuff.

~~Book I read~~

There will be treasures hidden inside the pile of garbage, same is true for books,last week I was driving via Egmore when a grand discount Sale board for books caught my eyes. I stopped and went inside ,there was a big pile was books and whatever we pick was 50 bucks. There were lots of books most of which of can be used to get good sleep once we read two or three pages and then use it as a pillow. I took two books keeping in mind that only when I finish those two I will get anyother book.



The book I read first was "A Golden Age" written by Tahmima Anam a Bangladeshi author and it was her debut novel. A golden age for a country is the time when it free from the clutches of foreign power and identifies itself individual country. A time where all her people are united with one goal one aim and one struggle. The youngster who drive the revolution from unknown parts of the country using some innovative techniques with little resources they have.

Golden Age wonderfully depicts a story of a woman who decides to settle in Dhaka after her husbands death,she is not interested to goto Pakistan where her sisters live but continues to live there and raise her children. Story goes on how her two children are affected by the events taking place in the country and joining the freedom struggle.How much efforts she had to make from her end to prove her loyalty to the place she lived. A good novel with touches our heart at many places also gives a Bangladeshi prospective of their freedom struggle and not just a Indo Pak war.

PS: I did check the price at flipkart later and was feeling lucky at the price I got it.

~~My VTV Experience~~

No I haven't seen Vinnaithandi Varuvaya. When I read one of the reviews the storyline seemed familiar.Not that I have seen it in some other movie but in real life. I called up my friend and asked "Dei did you go and tell your story to Gautam Menon" .His laughed and said "It was as if a movie taken for me". After teasing him for sometime I put down the call. Many things seemed similar to the movie and my friend's life, his perseverance, the confused state of the girl and religious background of the two people and finally the way it ended.

It was two years back on one fine evening when my friend and I were relaxing in fort Kochi beach, he got a call,he spoke for more than an hour leaving me with no other option than to see the waves crushing against the huge stones on the shore.When done with the call he told it was his college friend when I gave that I don't believe look he started saying his story. In short he was ready for a relationship with that girl but the girl considered him only as a friend.Or the girl was in confused state on what the relationship between them us was,that was giving hope for him. I said relationships will work out only if there is commitment from both ends or atleast there should be some encouraging signs from her end. There is no point trying to believe that you can convince her to start a relationship. He replied its we guys should take the initiative ,else we have to endup marrying the girl choose by the parents. I said its better to marry a girl choose by our parents than dreaming we could marry a girl who isn't taking any initiatives. He said if you wait for that girl to take initiatives you wont get that girl. The argument went no where and as we felt hungry we left to have dinner.

Three months later my friend had to leave for USA and it was an unplanned trip, he was told on a Thursday that he had to fly on Saturday evening. On Friday he got the tickets and other documents and on the same night we left for Chennai. Saturday morning we reached my grandma's place and after refreshing ourselves we left for shopping, we purchased the hand luggage,cabin luggage,few wardrobes and many other items on the list.In the mean time his parents,uncles,aunties,grandparents were on their way from his native to give send off to him.They will reach at one of his relative by evening and asked him to be there on time. We hurried up our shopping, quickly went back to my grandma's house packed the stuffs and took a cab to his relatives place.On the way he got a call from Juliet that she has to meet him before he flies. He asked me whether we can meet her first and then goto his relatives place, I gave an angry look and told the cab driver not to listen what he says. We reached his place we packed other stuffs which were brought by his parents.Suddenly this fellow shouts " I don't have a belt" before I could say use my belt or the people there could give any alternative he pulled me "Sriram come quickly,lets goto Naidu hall and get a belt.

Within no time I found myself sitting at the pillion of his cousin's scooty and he was driving like an Indian hero in the climax scenes of the many movies.I closed my eyes praying that I should see another day.At the entrance of Naidu Hall he saw his Juliet and immediately handed over the scooty to me and asked me to go and park. I once again asked him not to forget that in an hour he had to be in airport.Parking space was at other corner of the building and being a weekend I had sneak in the scooty between a cycle gap. Once done with parking I was not interested to go inside that shop,a place where I cant even do window shopping.I was giving company to the Gurkha outside welcoming the people coming in and sending off the people going out.With time running out I barged in and said to him enough of talking lets leave,he asked me pick the scooty from parking area and wait at the entrance. I took the long journey back took the scooty from the stands and reached the entrance, he still not contented with the time spent told me to go ahead and take a U turn and he will wait at the opposite side of the road.I took the scooty along the road looking for a U turn which came after some two long kilometers.Finally I picked him up and asked what big deal you discussed during the whole time. He replied "Nothing da ,she wished me Happy Journey". Had he not been travelling to US that day I would have kicked him out of the vehicle at that spot.When we reached the house his uncle asked him where is the belt ,realising the reason we went out he managed to say there were no belts available for his size.Finally we made on time to airport and sent him off.

After two days he called me from US after discussing the travel he said there is one shirt which he forgot to take it,the one which was gifted to him by Juliet. He asked me to take care of that shirt.The very next day I took that shirt and wore it office. Asked opinion from my friends there on how it looks on me.The next day I called him and said the shirt looks better on me and its time for him to get a new shirt or wait for someother girl to gift him a shirt.Being far from me he couldn't do anything.

PS:Last month I called him up on a weekend ,asked where is he , he replied he is attending the engagement function of Juliet.

~~Movie I saw~~

One of my friend suggested to see NewYork I love you a series of short films based on different genres,each directed by different directors with one come thing ie. it takes place in the city of Newyork. There were two short stories directed by Shekar Kapoor and Mira Nair. Without any expectations I went ahead to see this film.

Since one story get over within a short span of time we never know what comes next. Some are funny some touches your heart and some you can easily forget it. Below is a clipping which I liked from the movie.

~~IPL festival Begins~~

IPL 201o has started with a bang ,while I m writing this a wicket has fallen in the first delivery of the match. Even though I don't follow each and every ball of the match like my friend Krishna does, I usually watch few overs if the match is interestingly poised.

One interesting thing to watch out for are the use of Mongoose bats which looks more or less like a baseball bat. People like Mattew Hayden have planned to use it this season, interesting to see how this thing will put into use. I have started imagining plight of the poor bowlers getting smashed all around the park.

Picture above looks like a warrior ready for the battle! Hope to see some wonderful action in the coming months.

~~Post from my cousin~~

Last two days before I try to think of writing something , I have something better in my inbox.Today my uncle sent me an article written by his son(my cousin). It was way better than my usual scriblings

Here it goes...

“Vikash!” my mom yelled from two rooms away. “Come over here.” Reluctantly, I gave up my seat on the couch, where I was watching T.V., and wandered over to where she was sitting, with the laptop on the table. “Look at this,” she said, with a solemn expression on her face. Curious, I looked at the computer screen, and saw a gruesome sight. My mom had gotten an email, which had images of hungry kids. When I say hungry, I don’t mean they didn’t eat for just a day. It looked like these kids had never had more than a bite of food to eat every other day for their whole lives, and they probably didn’t eat as much as I would eat in one meal, in one week. They were so bad off, that when I first glanced at the pictures, I thought they were dead. Their stomachs were caved in almost to their spine, and I could have easily counted their ribs, even if they had a shirt on.

Before looking at these pictures, I had no idea of the extent of hunger and sorrow in the world. There were people dying because of causes that are possible for people to fix, but there was nothing I could do about it. Being only eight or nine, I did not realize all these things until my mom showed me those pictures. When I asked her what I could do, she said that while I was little I shouldn’t waste my food, and when I got older, I could donate to charities and help kids like those. She also said that it won’t help to just feel bad for people and not do anything. Despite these words, I can’t help but to feel bad for them anyway.

Through this experience, I learned just how lucky I am. I never thought there would be people that bad off, people on deaths doorstep for more than half their lives. Before this incident, I wasn’t very thankful for what I had, but, now, that has all changed.

What a food for thought!!!

~~Memories:Letter to my college mates~~

We have our college group mail which was active once upon a time ,nowdays its used only to send marriage invitation or some seasonal wishes. This was an article which I wrote during the final days of the college life,giving people tips on how to deal with their superiors. Its fun to read this after almost 5 years !

Tackling your boss (Dated 24th May 2005)

Hai Friends

WE people are going to work in a company sooner or later, one of my friend was having troubles with her boss,so she asked me how to tackle him. I gave these point... I think it may be useful to u people too....

WAYS TO FOOL YOUR BOSS

1)Tell him u have severe head ache and cant continue yr work(But be prepared he may give u aspirin)

2)DO lot of mistakes in your work such that he is afraid to give u any responsibility(i remember vijay's movie where a person would be put to watch vijay, such that he is not doing any work)

3)The most common one followed be sincere only when the boss is around,otherwise enjoy yr time.(if the boss is around all the time atleast try to act sincere)

4)Always use some icy words while speaking to your boss like,you are a key contributor

to the organisation or you holding a responsible position in the company.(He will come to know that u r the only person who have told him about his contributions)

5) If the boss is pious.....( I think u know what to do)

6)One Best way to bug your boss is get his mail id n bug him with mails from a different id.

7)Try adding some sleeping pills in his coffee(hey do this with care,if the dosage is increased then your boss will sleep on forever)

8)If he assigns u task ask him n number of doubts in it ,such that he finds another person to do that work.(if u cant ask doubt increase the time span for completing that task )

9)Try hiding his small small things like his spec,lighter,pen he would be spending most of the

time searching that and would not have time to bother u.

10) If all these does not work organise your gang and declare strike against your boss.

(Even father of our nation initiated non cooperation movement)

Sriram

Having said that I am yet to try few things in the list ;)

~~33% for women in India:Step1 ~~

One job you should think twice before you take up is to be Speaker of Indian parliament. One place which was filled with action packed drama today is the Indian parliament. I hardly remember a time when some meaningful debate took place there. Watch the below video, beware turn down the volume to the lowest possible level.

Anyways coming to today's events it was fun to get status then and there that the house is adjourned for umpteenth number of times. When everybody thought that the same old story is gonna continue our brave speaker suspended the unruly MP's out of the house and passed the woman's reservation bill with 186-1 majority. Kudos to him for doing that ,the same thing could be applied whenever each and every member disrupts the house.

Coming back to bill will it really empower woman ? hope we don't elect the wives of those unruly MP's who will be a mere puppet sitting in the parliament. Anyways this is the first hurdle crossed and there is still a long way to go.

~~My thoughts about this year Oscar awards~~

Hurt Locker getting 6 Oscars ,a movie which I didn't watch completely ,even though it was realistically shot in the backdrop of Iraq war. The time taken to diffuse each and every bomb in the movie,tested my patience which could have exploded at any point of time. One reason it could have won Oscars ,it might have touched the hearts of jury whose nears and dears might have been fighting unknown enemies in the rough terrains of Iraq.

Apart from that as I expected Sandra Bullock got her best actress award and Christopher Waltz supporting actor. Still last year Oscar function is evergreen in my mind. This one I would like to forget.

Krishna suggested me to see this funny clip!

~~My meeting with tamil writer 2~~

I have written about about my friend Arvind's dad who publishes a tamil literature magazine and writes lots of stuff too. He also has his own blog and posts many prominent articles and poems by various writers apart from his own thoughts. Aravind who is in US now had sent few stuffs to be given to his parents via Raj,which gave to me two months back. I was looking for an right time to goto his house but one was or other it was getting delayed.

Finally I made up my mind to goto their home ,I called his dad and announced my arrival. Since they had recently painted their house in a different color I missed their place . It took a while to identify their house with a renovated look. Once inside I started talking with the uncle, he gave a copy of his latest magazine and one of his short stories. Then he told about the recent book fair and told he was able to sell a good deal of his books. Then I asked about his newly got house ,he said that place was good enough to keep all his book. Then I asked him about the next novel he is writing , he has started writing that and have introduced a lot of characters and complicated the novel and he is thinking of a right a way come of it

Returned home after having good lunch in their house, a morning well spent

~~Book sale~~

When I was coming back from reception yesterday there was a book sale going on. Whatever book we pick was for 50rs. It was very difficult to any decent book from mounts of stuff piled up in the place. Finally settled for a novel named "A golden Age" set in Bangladesh during Indo Pak war of 1971. I thought of another one but resisted my temptation to one book at a time!

~~Friend's engagement and an old incident~~

Yesterday Sivapriya called me and reminded once again that I should make it for her engagement. Being a Friday I was looking for right reasons to leave office early and her engagement made matters much more easier. Sivapriya was my school junior and back door neighbour,never met her after college days as she moved to Hyderabad and me to Cochin but we used to keep touch in mail.

Her engagement was at hotel Swagat at Royapettah, somebody said its adjacent to pilot theater but I only saw a mechanic shop and furniture shop adjacent to it. I missed it on the way did ,after making a full round found the place hidden behind the petrol bunk.It was good see her after a long time,I sat in one corner of the hall. It was one such function where I know only Sivapriya,her dad and her sis since they were the main people in the function I had no other people to chat with. Priya's dad seeing me alone introduced to one of his friend. 'Hey this is JP's son'.

I started talking with that uncle, he was talking about his days in BHEL Trichy, asking me about my work and stuffs. Then came the interesting part of the conversation he told 'do you know your dad and I would have almost got killed in an accident'. I never knew any such incident and was eager to hear more. He was telling about a trip were my dad and he went, after landing in Chennai airport hired an auto. On the way a lorry skidded on seeing a cow in the middle of the road crashed on a car which just over took their auto, the car driver died on the spot.Had the car not over took their auto,they would have got a similar fate. I vaguely remember the incident told by my dad but it was not as serious as he narrated such that I forgot the next day.Thank the stars that saved their life that day.

EDIT: Comment from my dad!

That incident took place during 1996. We were coming from Kolkotta and the flight got delayed & landed at Chennai around 11 PM. As we could not board Rockfort express we decided to stay at Chennai. Mr Sivaraman ( name of the uncle Sriram met ) wanted to go to Mylapore and hired an auto. I was searching for another auto to go to Sec. colony. He was giving company for me and in the meantime Sivaraman's auto driver got another Customer and went off. We decided to go upto Gemini together and got into another auto.
Before Kathipara jn., a lorry which came in the opposite direction at high speed jumped the barricade first hit a cow then the auto which ditched Sivaraman, then a car which overtook our auto and came very near to our auto and stopped within a metre distance. Our auto driver almost fainted. As we were the eye witness of this accident we somehow managed our auto driver to drive to a police station. Near Kathipara jn., we saw some policemen and informed them the accident. Seeing our panic and shocked condition they asked us to proceed to our residence.
Next day we came to know that the auto driver who ditched Sivaraman and the car driver got killed at spot. The lorry was driven by the cleaner.
I was thanking the Grace of Almighty and Mala & Sriram's blessings! ( Sriram used to bless me by placing his hand on my head with Arutkappu whenever I start leaving for tour! ) - Jp

~~Movie I saw~~

After a long time I really enjoyed a movie eventhough I didnt understand a single word spoken in that. Yea it was a classic Iranian movie which was nominated for Oscars during the year 1997.

Children of Heaven a beautiful scripted film tells the story of brother and sister. The story goes like this the brother takes his sisters shoes to cobbler to mend. On his way back he loses it due to his bad luck.What follows is how they manage to goto school with a pair of shoes and the problems they face all the way.

The two kids who were less than 10 years have acted wonderfully, they emotions are well captured in the screen. Kudos to director for bringing a good screenplay from a simple story line. A touching climax in the end,would have won oscars had it not been for Life is Beautiful.

~~Thinking what to post~~

Nothing coming to my mind!

~~Visit to Hinamatsuri dolls and Movenpick~~

Nammi had come down to Chennai from Bangalore to attend her visa interview, we planned to meet up in the evening. I was browsing for events in the city which is worth a visit. Hinamatsuri, the festival of hina dolls caught my eyes. The display was a part of Japanese art exhibition held at Lalitha Kala academy. So planned to give a visit. I left office little bit early,picked Nammi on the way and reached the place around 6.

Once inside there were lots of modern arts which we didn't understand anything out of it. Then there were few electronic gadgets which we could not make out how to use it.Only thing which impressed us were the dolls.Japanese people celebrate a festival like what we Indians do during Navarathiri arrange the dolls in a Kolu kind of format. Each level symbolising something. If there was a proper guide and explained what is it we would have enjoyed that outing more.

From there we went to Movenpick, one of the ice cream parlours which boasts of ice cream from Swiss. One good thing about the place is can sit in comfortable positions as if sitting in floors with legs in stretched out position.Nammi ordered cafe choco combo icecream and I settled for a strawberry.Since its been a long time we met,we started talking about things happening in our lives, times when we were in Cochin, trips we went, movies we watched,group cooking during weekends etc.She was my official translator for all the hindi movies which I saw in Cochin.I made her proud saying that I saw 3 Idiots and MNIK without the help of any translators. We agreed that its people not the place which makes life happy and how life in Cochin would have been meaningless without our gang. Finally when it was time to pay the bill ,she snatched it from hand and said its her treat and I asked why,she replied 'Its my visa rejection treat'.

~~Trip to Munnar: Prelude~~

My friend Saravanan is moving to Bangalore soon,so asked me to make a trip to Cochin before he leaves. I said I will think about it.

Apart from that its quite sometime I was planning trip home , I used to call mum whether she was free that weekend one way or other she was busy with some work. So I thought its better to goto some other place, Cochin was the first thing came to my mind. When I told mum that I m going to Cochin she said she will cancel all the appointments and join me for the trip. Since its easier for me to meet her at Cochin than at Trichy I agreed and booked tickets.

Called up Raj ,he was ready for it and he booked tickets from Bangalore. So we gathered few other people and finalised our trip. Once we gathered people we discussed about the location. It was an unanimous choice that we are going for Munnar,a beautiful hill station.