~~New year Resolution~~

I was discussing few new year resolutions with my friends in my office ,almost everything got thumbs down either they believed I will break it within a week or its not in my calibre to take up such silly resolutions.

Then one of friend suggested I needn't trouble myself taking some silly resolution and try hard to keep it each and everyday. Then they advised me take up something challenging such as a goal which I want to achieve. Hmmm for me nothing is challenging to achieve,if at all something is challenging it wont be my goal.

Then finally after some thought ,I got an interesting resolution even my friends were much impressed! Here it is


Find my dream girl !!!

2010 here I come!!!

~~Blogging in 2009~~

Continuing my memories of 2009 this is the year I got fully involved blogging, from being a hobby it became a habit these days. Apart from my blogs there where many blogs I admired and adored some changing the way I think,will list them sometime some day.

When I look back at my blogs there are things which I would have easily forgotten down the time.

Such as
My haircut experience

other funny incidents like
taking mum out for shopping
or
losing my ATM card

Trip experiences to

Delhi,Bangalore and Tenkasi


There are lot more better or worse than above but these where the things which caught my eyes during the quick browse.

So no more looking back at 2009 ,looking forward to 2010 ,in the process of finalising the resolutions :)

~~Things happened in 2009~~

Just thought of going through the days of 2009,an year filled with activities,loads of fun,lots of travel and as usual its an year passing as swift as it came.

I thought I will list out few things I have done or liked this year.

Its was change of work place Cochin to Chennai, entirely changing my day to day schedule from a laid back life style to a busy one. Being a new team met lot of people made many new friends. Getting wonderful food to eat,been out of kitchen for almost an year(cant remember when I experienced it before)

Year filled with trips around India visiting Delhi,Agra,Cochin,Bangalore,Tenkasi and finally Mystique land.

Many first time experiences visiting Taj Mahal or feeling snow or getting smashed up(oil massage) at kutralam.

I think I have spent most of the time of the year in my company bus,found these journeys can be interesting if there is a proper company or good book to read. So most of the books I have read are during these bus journeys. Few books I liked are Two States,Paths of Glory and The Great Indian Novel.

This is the year I haven't gone to theatres to watch a movie except seeing 2nd half of slum dog millionaire since we don't know what to do in city center.But it didn't stop me from watching movies in DVD's.When it comes to Tamil movies I never had the patience to watch any full movie completely except for Unnai pol oruvan maybe it was short and crisp.

Coming to Indian perspective.There were few moments like Rahman getting Oscars or Sachin smashing 175 still lingers in my mind. It was also the year the India went for elections and got a proper mandate a stable government for the next five years.Year which had no major terror attacks.

Hope next year will be much better than this!


Now thinking of 2010 new year resolutions!

~~Trip Prelude:Getting Leather Jacket~~

When we planned for the trip to mystique land ,KG warned me about the freezing temperatures prevailing there and asked me to purchase warm clothes.

I asked KG where can I get good leather jacket (even through being Buffalo skinned the climatic conditions asked for yak skin) he suggested Indian Silk house,one of the traditional shops in mount road. We reached the place after an awesome ride in my bike in the Chennai traffic frightening KG by cutting in between cars and buses.

Once inside the shop ,the shop keeper recognised KG immediately and was so happy that he keeps on bringing VIP customers.KG was in form quickly , told shopkeeper that I m going immediately to USA and I m in desperate need winter clothing.

The shopkeeper was an old and wonderful fellow. He showed me black jacket and gave an explanation as follows 'This is called as jacket, this has two pockets if you feel cold you can put the hand inside the pockets, this is called as hood you can use this to cover your head and ears(maybe frighten Swathi). This is zip it can be used to close the jacket you have to pull it straight up.These are buttons you just have to press them'.If you walk on the road and snow falls on it just push it, see no snow goes inside the jacket.Wow he was telling this in a very serious tone and it was the first time I m hearing 'How to use manual in a cloth shop.

He didn't stop with jacket alone he started giving instructions for thermals, this the top you have to wear on bare body then wear your shirt, this is the bottom wear it after wearing you underwear(as if I m going to try the spider man style).Then he took a cap,'this is called as cap this is used to cover the head when you pull further down it becomes monkey cap'.

We got a piece of thermals each which we wore for most of the trip and a leather jacket which when worn showed no difference between me and the yak.But jokes apart these were the two stuffs which protected me from the freezing climate!

Click here for episode 1

Click here for prelude 2

~~ I am Back!!! ~~

Now in my Blog!!!

Starring KG and Sri

Seven Days

Six nights

Five places

(in)Four wheeler

(conquering)Three points

Two people

One Adventure

~~Experiences in Land of Mystique~~

Pictures for Preview

Watch out this space!!!

Click here for episode 1

Click here for prelude

PS: I m back after an adventurous trip ,be it experiencing snow or climbing great heights or interacting with wonderful people it was a trip worth every penny! Will pen down down the experiences and preludes then and there.

~~Going for vacation~~

Its time to end the year with a big note and cant find anything better,than to end it with an adventure trip.


Guess with whom I m going ?

yeah its KG and me(yea his surprise mate)!!!


Place where we are going???

borrowing words from KG's blog

trip within India and here “journey itself is the destination” – Mystique and Beautiful BUT the problem is freezing cold. And lots of preparation has to do and yes, even if you are citizen of India, you require permit to visit some of these places

Today myself and KG were discussing about the trip , final part of the conversation

KG: Take bath tomorrow we don't know when next

Me: hehe I have taken today itself ;)

KG:Take tomorrow too just in case

Me : ok will try :)

So week long break from my usual routine(includes blogging). Already have tons to blog once I return!

~~Dinner at Eden~~

Yesterday Ganesh called up and voluntarily agreed to give us treat.Opportunities like these are rare as most of the time treats which I get/give are given out of demand,compulsion or threat.

Hotel Eden was suggested and when Ganesh asked the route to reach it ,I sent it out using google maps,makes life very easy these days, no confusions of telling left and right or mentioning some landmarks which will hidden from the eyesight.




Since the hotel was on the way home from my office I jumped from the bus when the place crossed.Soon after I was joined by Diana, Ganesh ,then Shalu and family.Now we were all set for dinner.Since this was my first visit to that place I liked its ambiance.Menu card was looking little Greek and Latin and it Shalu our expert taster suggested the menu's for us.

Sweet corn was used to be my favourite dish, so Shalu suggested a toast for starter which I liked and for main course I choose corn something which turned out to be a bigger toast with greater quantity, thats what happens when we try out to order something new. I ended up eating bits and pieces from everybody Else's items.Finally we ended with good dessert with Ganesh eating something called as 'I can't see my waist down'.

Most of the food we ate would have got digested because of the fun and laughter we had during the dinner.Thanks Ganesh for your Magnanimous treat!!!

~~TED talk~~

I liked this talk by Alexis Ohanian co founder Reddit,a popular site where user can post their links they like and the popular ones get upvoted and in the end of day we can see the popular links for the day. The whole process is democratic, visiting Reddit has become one of my day to day activities.

Given below are few reddit links from last weeks I liked
Mum's picture
pray for troops
bros pic

~~Typical S/w engineer's conversation~~

This was the conversation I had with my colleague when she got struck up with an issue.

teammate: hi
me: hiii
teammate:have u ever faced error while loggin on to vista "User profile service failed logon"
me:hmmmm have got tat one
me: but once u give ok it gets logged in rite
.
.
(after sometime)
.
teammate: hey I resolved jus now
me:coooooool
me:what u did ?
teammate: first logged into administrator acct and opned registry editot
profile key had .bak appened
me: awesome
teammate: renamed it
me: gr8 Comp sc engineer nu prove pannuringa
teammate:ellam google than
me:tats our trademark
teammate: hehehe
me: google illai na namma velai ee panna mudiyadu
teammate: amam
teammate:what if google announces maintenance for a day
me: nammaku anniku holiday

hope we are not put into that situation :)

~~Cataract treatment~~

My grandpa is the database for all the restaurants in the city, if you tell the area he will say what are the good restaurants around it.Or if you tell the restaurant name he will say where and all its located in the city.

Monday morning I took him to eye clinic to remove the cataract formed in his eye.We had the appointment at 9am at Annanagar and he planned the day perfectly.When we were leaving the house around 8 30 grandma asked to have breakfast and leave but he said no to that since he cant afford missing the appointment.

On the way he said ,there is restaurant named Balaji Bhavan nearby and we can finish the breakfast there after the treatment.We reached the clinic being a Monday morning it was not much crowded and within 15 minutes we were called in.

Coming to treatment,it was a laser treatment,the doctor took time in positioning the eye and once he has done that it was hardly a minutes job and the whole thing was over within 5 minutes. I remember some 10 years ago my other grandma has a similar operation but she had to be in hospital for three days and take rest in the house for a month wearing a cooling glass looking like lady MGR. We have come far away from those days such that my grandpa could even plan where to have his breakfast after the treatment not even having the slightest worry about the whole thing.

Good to see technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the years making life easier and simpler.But at the same time the cost for treatment. I m not sure that all the people can afford the same.

~~Dinner at Senthur~~

With my Sunday evening free I was thinking of ways to spend it before my nephew called.He has just come down for semester holidays and invited me to his home. When I reached he asked for some valuable advise on how to kill time. I gave few suggestions like get my early morning early morning and to and fro in the footpath of marina beach or learn cooking. Both of which got him uninterested and to change the topic he said lets go for dinner (its his dream to eat different variety everyday,he thought I would suggest that). We decided to go to Senthur

Senthur is located in the lane opposite to Spencers or opposite to Taj mount road hotel.Advertised in front it serves fusion of Indian foods,the ambiance inside was pretty good and the menu had offered some varieties.Food was delicious and the good thing it offered few package deals for the kids.My young nephew grabbed one of those a combo consisting of chocolate dosai,fresh fry and a dry fruit cake along with a activity kit.Coming to our dishes Benares's paneer served was too good.

After finishing the dinner there was a weight machine in the corner and nephew took the right opportunity to check his weight.One done he asked me to do it ,I said no not to spoil my night's sleep.But he wouldnt listen ok then I stood expecting the unexpected ohhh man my weight goes up only in one direction.Ok ok time to impose some strict diet,maybe will for 2010 :)

~~Caught with Cold~~

Getting common cold is pretty nuisense which can spoil the whole day ,today was one such day the secret fountain inside my nose started functioning and before I realised my whole hanky got drenched.In order to avoid sprinkling water around I rushed to the rest room grabbed few tissue papers.But those stuffs didnt last for long and I made four or five trips to the rest room to collect the tissues.Thank God being a weekend there was enough stock of tissues.When I left for the day the dustbin under my desk was filled with tissue balls.

What may be the cause for the this cold 'An apple a day keeps a doctor away', my grandma usually gives me a box of apple everyday but today I didnt take that.Maybe that was the problem.

~~Cenotaph road flyover~~

Today while returning back in bus I was completely involved in reading another book which I got from flipkart.After 100 minutes of reading I looked through the window shocked to see bus was in saidapet, a route taken only by 23C. Then I remembered that the Cenotaph-turnbulls road flyover is getting opened for people to use.

I remember they have started building this flyover some 10 months ago ,it was supposed to be completed by November but given the rain and some legal issues it got delayed but not long enough ending our misery.Construction of this flyover caused an agonising delay adding salt to wounds of the tiresome trip we endure every day.It was a challenge for drivers to take us through the narrow residential area without hitting gates,walls and their flower pots.



Above is the map of the area, the red line is the route taken by vehicles beacuse of the construction of flyover and the width of the lanes would be no more than 30 feet.From tomorrow we can zoom past via the green line.Since this is a shortest route from IT highway to mount road, this area used to be the bottle neck of the traffic jam.Now with the flyover built we have to wait and see how good it is to easy the traffic flow.Hope it doesn't transfer the bottle neck to the next junction.

Book I read..

Getting books has become an easy affair with the help of flipkart. Last week when I was browsing through the best seller's list I came accross this book titled 'Missed IIT kissed Russia' by Neeraj Chhibba. Atttracted by the title and the deal it gave I ordered the book.Got it two days back and finished it today.





The book gives an overall perspective of the hard life students had to deal when are studying in Russia where language ,climate ,food ,culture etc are new to them and getting adapted to them is a real challenge.Novel has its bit of humor and romance.Since its written by the author has missed IIT(like me-okok cool down) one can feel the pain in not getting through inspite of the efforts put.

A Good time pass.

~~Mobile Problem~~

My mobile started to give problems again :( this time though phone functionality is working but it is not reading from the memory card. Making my life difficult since I use my mobile more to listen songs and take photos rather than to talk.

Given it for service and since the guarantee period is gone dont know how much its gonna cost me!

~~Acupressure seats~~

My bike seat cover got worn out and before it gets torn into pieces I decided to change it.So I went to the shop nearby and asked for seat covers. Since it was a weekday the shop was free and I had ample time to select the covers.And it came in different designs start stripes etc.The shopkeeper asked me to try the acupressure seat cover. Wow that was the only portion of my body I didnt give any proper exercise,so immediately I choose one from them.

When we were about the change the seat cover,we found out the entire foam underneath the cover had got damaged and it needed to be changed.So what started as visit to changing the cover ended up chaining everything.With the new seat which is pretty hard added to acupressure points in the cover its more like riding on a horse.(its worse than the horse ride I had in Marina :) )

~~Back to back visit to Marina~~

Marina beach got reinvented itself,with bright spot lights around,well maintained lawns friendly footpaths on two sides,ample parking space,added to that cleanliness had got its long deserved respect(at least by Chennai standards). When I saw KG's blog last month I never guessed it could be Marina but miracles do happen and this one of the kind.

I was planning to visit Marina,Sunday afternoon KG called and said lets goto beach, from office I directly drove to Triplicane.After having snacks @ his place KG,Suba,Thiyana ,Ganesh and myself left to Marina.We walked in the newly build footpath almost till the lighthouse then walked into the sand.We sat near a chilli bhajji shop and treated ourselves with hot bhajji's in the cool breeze.Since all the four belong to the lucky group who reads my blogs(ok KG's blog also) felt easy for me/them to link up funny conversations.

After coming back I realised that I havent gone inside the water at the beach, maybe the gang with which I went was too old for doing these kinds of experiment :)
.Going to beach not having a go at the waves was like going the hotel and coming back without eating anything or going to a Saloon and read the newspaper and come back.So my visit to Marina was incomplete.

Monday when I was bragging about the beauty of Marina beach my cousin said he needs to see the beach. So I took to beach ,made him walk till he could nt take more,took him to the water then,I was relishing the feel of gentle waves on the legs until my cousin interrupted saying he is hungry.Then went to the usual place this time I tried Bhel puri which they served with a ice cream spoon with great difficulty I tried to finish that.

While we eating those stuff one horse neighed while crossing us which was enough for my cousin to ask me for a horse ride.Fine when we went and enquired the ride was 50bucks for a round.And the horse keeper insisted that I should also take a round since there was another horse nearby.I looked around to check whether any PETA people
are waiting there to catch me when got on to the horse. Then I got few instructions on how to turn the horse, how to stop and start it.Off it went ,since the beach was littered with people here and there it was funny experience to maneuver the horse ,when I tried to turn it would stop ,when I tried to keep it walk again it went to make some circles(hey I m not paying for doing merry go round).Then the keeper pushed it to a straight.Once the round was about to get over they offer me a fast run on the horse for which I said next time.

All in all two days at Marina are still not enough ,there are lots more to experience there!!

~Building experiments~

Last weekend Keerthi called me

Keerthi: lets build a famous building model.
Me: Hey i m workin this weekend .Anyways what building is it?
Keerthi:Berkeley art museum.
Me:WHAT ? how come you choosed that .
Keerti: I first choose empire state building then sears towers all got rejected finally I ended up with this.(!!!)

Sunday night I went to her house ,I had the look at the picture of Berkeley art muesum in net and told her I am not an architect to build a model of it.And even said why cant she choose something simple like LIC building such that we can build it using a cardboard box. She said her building should be complex enough such that her workmanship should be noted by everybody(hey I havent done even a single assignment like that when I was in college).Then she was showing all other kind of building from net to choose from, all complex models were rejected by me and all simple models were rejected by her. No conclusion was reached and I slept.

Monday she asked her teacher for suggestion and came up with a more complex structure to develop.That evening over google chat we were exchanging links of few buildings and she suggested one which kind of workable.

Tuesday we decided to build the model, we got thermocols from the near shop one got broken into pieces while taking it back home.After taking few measurements we cut the thermocols into pieces and then struck them with fevicol. After 3 hours work we got the structure somewhat ready when an accidental swipe from my hand hit the structure... alas the whole structure collapsed in front of our eyes.Then only it struck our dead brains we need to have a foundation for any build to stand strong.
It took another 3 hours to complete the structure.Whew I cant remember any day I worked like this when I was in college.

~~About Friendship~~

Got this from my friend today....


Friendship is not about “I m sorry “ its about “Dei un thappu than ithu..“

Friendship is not about “I m there for u” or “I missed u “ it’s about “Enga poi tholanja “

Friendship is not about “I understand “ its about “Ellam unnala than“

Friendship is not about “I care for u “ its about “Pannada unnai vitutu enga poven naan “

Friendship is not about “I m happy for ur success “its about “Kelambu un treat “

Friendship is not about “I love that girl“ its about “Dei mariyadaiah paru athu un thangachi.. “

Friendship is not about “R u coming for outing tomorrow “ its about “ Dei naalaiku trip porom vera engayum poi tholaikatha “

Friendship is not about “Get well soon “ its about “ Ivlo kudicha ipaadi than agum“

Friendship is not about “All the best for ur career“its about “pannathu varaikum pothum, kelambu vera velaya paru“

~~Finishing King's Quest~~

King's Quest is one of the famous DOS game series which was popular during 90's when I was in school. It was a simple strategy game you have to find clues interact with the characters and proceed. It was great fun in those days and sometimes I would get struck days at one stage not knowing how to proceed further.

King's quest VI 'Heir today Gone tomorrow' is last but one part of the series,I remember playing it when I was in 9th standard but I couldn't complete it because I lost the track somewhere in the middle ,got struck ,got frustrated and vowed never to waste time on that.The inability to complete the game was like a big shame and was haunting me sometime.(Thanmana pirachanai)

Last week while I was doing some basic search about few tools in the net I came across DOS box (dont get hifi since it sounds similar to XBOX) which is used for playing DOS games in windows mode.Games like prince of persia were given as examples which can be played.I thought I could play King's quest.I searched for the King's quest and since that game has become too old or too ameatuerish for this generation gaming kids it was available for free download(which I think nobody would have downloaded).

Anyways to make the long story short I downloaded the game got struck in the same place but this time I had the help of google :) ,searched for hints here and there and completed the within the day. It was like finishing a long pending task and gave me lot of satisfaction.That night I slept peacefully!!!

~~When will I meet my future partner~~

I usually get some junk smses from Vodafone(my service provider) asking to listen to the song which I never listen or gossips about bollywood which i dont care or some new service which wont make my life any better. All these messages have value added service charge.Normally I never see those message and directly delete them.

Today when our gang was leaving for lunch I got a message like this " Your best friend is getting married, what about you? Want to know when you will meet your life partner" SMS yr DOB . at the bottom Rs 3/sms.
I laughed at it and showed the message to my colleague, after reading it she grabbed the mobile and responded to it giving my DOB.

Few minutes got the following response and my interpretation

If you are single then you may be 35 % close to marriage
( What this 35% closer or they are telling 65% far away from it)
You may get married in you early 25-30s.
(What point they are trying to make here )
You should really change your view on relationship
(Come on I m straight cant change it)
and it may be better for you if you do not change your girl friend too often.
(hello inga single girl friend ee vazhiya kaanum idula multiple verava)
There may be further delay
(ada paavi idu verava)
but marriage is not denied.
(thankgod)
Try to concentrate on your career
(Yoww I spent 3rs on when will I meet my partner not to worry about my career)
and give your best in everything you do.
(advise kudukka vandutanga appa)
To know more abt sms .....Rs3/msg
(aala vidu saami)