Welcome to the world of 'My Blogs'

When its hard to kill time

2011-09-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

There are a few days when time chases you to kill, but there as some days when ypu chase time to kill it. Today was one of such days. Lack of interesting work and other important stuff to do, makes one bored of life. The usual pasttime before the computer is to browse the internet and travel to the ends of the world at the click of a mouse and enjoy the leisure of a world trip. But there are times when travelling in the virtual space

New England

2011-09-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

The memories of England were revived when I visited the Portland Lighthouse in New England. The reason for this place being called New England was strikingly evident from the architecture in the place.

The Portland lighthouse is located in Portland, Maine. This place seems to be discovered by the Irish settlers. The waters connected the land to the Atlantic Ocean. Boats and yachts’ touring the waters was a wonderful sight. The location also had a battery where 12" cannons protected the land against attacks from the sea.

when my Facebook account was hacked..

2011-01-26T14:23:00.001-08:00

My facebook account was hacked on a weekend. It sent crazy messages to all my friends in the list. Then I changed my password to **** and then everything worked fine ...lolz.

Nike Shoe

2011-01-18T00:16:00.000-08:00

My design of a shoe. Design your own at Nike.com

Being a Bachelor

2011-01-17T23:43:00.000-08:00

I was a bachelor again for a few weeks when my wife was away. Hitting the gym was an important item on the list for the days. I had to ease the signs of being a married man. For the first few days, I lived on the reserve food stocks that was prepared for me. Very soon I was able to empathise with the ones who sleep on a hungry stomach. The taste of the foods increased as the availability of choicest foods went down. Every meal was consumed whole heartedly just because I couldn't imagine when my next meal would come to me. Hunger slowly moved a lazy person like and I had to start cooking. In a few days, i lost a few pounds even without tiring out myself at the gym.
Those were the days when I turned my kitchen into a research laboratory. All kinds of food combination was tried and even the weirdest ones seemed to be better than the previous ones. One has to labour hard in the kitchen to enjoy the real taste of the meal.

A new phone arrives

2010-05-14T19:46:00.003-07:00

I was allocated a new desk at Bangalore; in fact I never had one at Bangalore. The most important item was missing at the desk, a phone. Immediately a request was raised for a phone and it arrived in two days. A service person was at my desk with the phone and he connected the equipment and told that it will take some time for the phone to register itself. I was eagerly waiting for the registration to complete and was irritated to see the message 'registration failed due to security issue'. I tool the handle of the phone to check if there was any tone in it but to my surprise the handle was not connected to the base, the wire was missing. I could control the giggles and anger. So I will have to wait for some more time to get the phone working.

Mickey mouse

2010-04-17T05:37:00.000-07:00

Once I found a small mouse running inside our house. It was a very tiny mouse with a long tail. This Jerry was very quick even for a ‘Tom’ like me. I hated the idea of that silly mouse enjoying a free accommodation in my house and I vowed to catch him one day.

I opened the door on a Saturday early morning and I found the same mouse sleeping in a corner outside. Taking slow steps towards him without waking his sleep, I made sure that he was having a good sleep. A mop was the only thing I could grab in my hand. Courage to smash the little Mickey was missing, so I poked him with the tip of the mop. He then suddenly woke up wide awake from his dreams and started to make some mad turns in the corner and then watched him slip into the nearest door and I am still waiting to meet him face to face.

90 Mile beach

2010-04-01T05:13:00.000-07:00

The next trip has been planned again. This was planned just the week after the visit to the Grampians.

This time it was a drive to the Land of thousand lakes, the Gippsland. We rented a white Toyota Corolla after saying a no to the Holden cruze. Ramesh, Sathish, Anil, Jay and I were the five inside the white vehicle. We had to stop at Sale and it cost one hour of our trip and we reached the first of our many destinations, Lake Guthridge. Then after having a light meal at the subway, we moved to the Golden beach. The route to the beach was empty with only a few vehicles in sight at some long irregular intervals.

Ramesh, the experienced and the skillful driver clocked some high speeds and enjoyed his drive along the freeways.

The sands at the beach looked like sands of gold and we also tried a hand in fishing before we sped off to the sea spray beach. After a brief halt at the sea spray we decided to return to Melbourne as no one seemed anymore interested in seeing beaches and all of them looked alike but with different names.
The hurried driving by Ramesh helped us to reach Melbourne in just half the time we took to reach the place in the morning.

Sambhar and rice was on the dinner menu at home as usual. Sathish, the great cook takes his time to put some extra chili and salt to all the dishes he makes. I had a stomach full of rice with sambhar and hit the bed.

The next morning we all woke up late and Rahul in a hurry to return the car in time to avoid the extra penalty, scraped the rear of another car parked in the door way and ended up blowing a hole in all the six pockets.

This was one of the rememberable trips and the incident which took place after this will remain in the minds for some time to come.

Grampians: The trek to the pinnacle

2010-03-27T15:38:00.001-07:00

trip by: Ramesh, Sathish, Jay, Rahul and Sunil

N'Sync

2010-02-27T03:49:00.000-08:00

left to right: Lijo, Sunil, Sathish, Rahul
photo by: onlooker

A short visit to India

2010-02-05T23:27:00.001-08:00

I went on this trip to India only because I promised Nancy that I will accompany her back to India. But I was really contemplating how to make it possible and keep my word. Hectic work and crazy people around made things difficult for me. But still I booked the tickets and informed them that I will have to leave at any cost. I never cared about the consequences. We reached Bangalore on a Friday night and stayed there for four days and again on the fourth day we travelled to Kerala. It was a rememberable journey which included eating from different stations on the way and standing at the door of a running train. Papa and Biju were waiting at the station to receive us and we drove home on the Versa. A memorable week was spent in Kerala which included drives to adoor and attending the engagement of kochumol. The 27th of Jan came in no time and it was the time to separate and embark on journeys to two entirely different directions. Nancy was the one who was crying all the time and I never felt the prick those times. We reached Bangalore and Nancy reached America. Back home, it was an air of sadness and absence. I had to travel back to Melbourne on 29th. I reached Bangkok and when I reached the place in the airport that we sat waiting for the flight, I felt something missing. In fact it was someone who was missing. The times that Nancy and I spent strolling through the airport and shopping around raced through my mind. I couldn’t control the emotions and couldn’t resist the tears in my eyes. An air of desperateness surrounded me and sadness crawled over my body as a creeper crawls up on a tree. I walked towards the nearest phone and called Nancy and dint have the words or courage to talk as I was weak and about to burst out in tears. I survived the next 8 hours of flight to Melbourne and somehow managed to reach home with a heavy heart. The next few days went by terribly. That was the first time ever in my life that I missed someone and felt homesick.

Arriving at Bangkok

2010-02-05T21:43:00.001-08:00

Fifteen hours of transit for a four hour flight is sarcastic and ridiculous enough to make a person wonder how to spend that time in an unknown place. Nancy being an equally sportive and an adventurous kind of person like me, we decided to go around Bangkok on our own as the day tours available at the airport were showing the places that dint interest either of us. So we took a map of the Bangkok city and ventured out into that unexplored city where English is an alien language and not even a single Indian was visible. It was surprising not to find much Indians around. We decided to go to some places that were worth visiting and tried various means of transport around the city. I decided to listen to Nancy as she was more courageous and bolder among both of us. Eating at the local restaurants was exciting and the variety of food served was astonishing. Nancy is a few steps ahead of me even in eating and trying out new food. We stood in the long queue and brought two expensive tickets to the grand palace only to escape from the place in a very shorter time than the time we spent in the queue to buy tickets to get in. We both managed to talk to the local auto (tuk tuk) drivers to take us to the palace where we can get a bus back to the airport. We checked in again and in a few hours we landed in Bangalore. That was the journey from Bangkok to Bangalore.

Nanz in Melbourne

2010-02-05T21:09:00.001-08:00

It was 8:30 Pm and I arrived a bit late to the Tullamarine airport to find that the flight number in which Nancy was supposed to arrive is missing on the screen. All the other flights that landed and the ones scheduled to arrive were are displayed on the big screen at the arrival area. She arrived in a month’s time from the day I landed in Melbourne. Separation for a month was one of the difficult times that I experienced. The absence of the flight number made me worried and tensed. I was wandering through the lounge and as I was staring at the people who were coming out of the door, I felt a tap from behind on my shoulder. I turned back to see a cross faced Nancy questioning me ‘whom are you looking for?’ I was relieved after seeing her. We were soon on the way to the house and on the way we shopped for essential food stuff at Coles and that was it for the Thursday night. We had a place at Arun’s apartment. The transformation that took place in the house was unbelievable. I still wonder how Nancy managed to do that all alone. I arrived back from office the next day to find a big change within. I still appreciate her for that. The cleaning tool that she used to clean the house still remains a secret.A month and five days passed like a breeze. Daily walks in the evenings were usual and ended with a visit to the Coles. I had good tasty food all these days. We visited a few places in Melbourne. The plan to visit Sydney was sabotaged due to a hectic weekend work. We booked tickets to India together and on Jan 15 we set out to India after saying a Good bye to Melbourne.

In real life....

2009-11-27T07:09:00.000-08:00

Nancy leaves her family

2009-11-21T06:47:00.000-08:00

from left to right:

Finny, Blessy, Nancy, Papa and Denny

My Wedding

2009-11-21T00:25:00.000-08:00

Getting married to a girl and staying with her for the rest of my life was one thing that I imagined that would never happen to me. Two days before this day, we travelled to Gods own country and never throughout the journey I felt any difference from the rest of the journey that I made to this same land. The only difference that I knew was my mobile had many incoming calls from this girl Nancy who later transformed into my life partner. On the day, we all got ready and jumped into the white car which had ‘Sunil weds Binsi’ written behind it. Binsi is not any other girl, rather the same girl with the pet name Nancy. We arrived to the auditorium followed by a few cars behind. We were second to reach the place, as Nancy already reached the place and I could see her sitting in the back seat of her car in a white flowing sari. She looked more beautiful and graceful than I expected her to be. We met only twice before our marriage and talked freely only on one occasion. I could see from the corner of my eye that she was holding a bunch of flowers. I wanted to jump into her car and wish her, but resisted myself from doing so. As I stepped out of my car, a few cameramen surrounded me and I felt like a celebrity and also could feel the strong pressure to avoid any silly mistakes that I could commit.
I was escorted to the front with my dad, mom and sister and was followed by Nancy. It was the first time in the day I could see her smiling. The ceremony was long and tiring and included an hour’s speech by the pastors. Soon after the wedding, I got down from the dais and found that Nancy was missing. People around stated questioning me ‘where is your wife’. Soon she reappeared in a different sari and a different hair style. I still wonder how she managed to do it all in the few minutes of time that she had. The reception was grand with wonderful food spread on the tables and I could see people relishing. I was the only one who couldn’t eat any. Even Nancy was gulping down all the food that she could from the plates in front of her and this kind of eating still continues to this day.
The latter part was the most embarrassing one for me. It was the time to introduce all my relatives to her and Nancy would introduce hers to me. I knew a very few of my relatives by name and I had to smile and answer yes when they would come to me and ask ‘son, do you remember us’. But Nancy knew all her relatives by name and she was at ease in this regard. We were drive home in a different car and my parents came in the same one that we drove in the morning. There was a welcoming ceremony at her house and my first fight with Nancy started as we were offered a cup of coffee by Blessy chichi. I used my left hand to hold the cup and I could hear murmuring to me to use my right hand. I gladly shifted the cup to my right hand without answering back. The reason I used my left hand was because Nancy was sitting close to me on my right side and any jerk and jolt by her would spill the coffee on her and me.
My parents left after a few minutes and still I never had the feeling that I am leaving my parents and about to live with my wife. Even Nancy and me never had the feeling that we were a wedded couple, but just like a girl and boy going out together. It was a tiring and a long day and I fell asleep in the bed only to wake up and find that there are still long and sleepless nights waiting for me.

Goodbye

2009-09-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

A time to eat and a time to fast, a time to sow and a time to reap, a time to go on trips and a time to have fun, there is a time for everything. The ever moving clock has a time for each and every moment of life. This was the time when we had to say a good bye. The joyful moments that we had together, the long weary and aimless drives that we went to, the gluttonous lunches and dinners, the sleepless nights on a game of cards and the stomach rolling times that we together had over a period of 6 months had come to an end on a Saturday evening when Babitha, Ezhil and Gracian flew away from Melbourne. Saravanan was the first to leave the pack on a Monday morning and the others followed him on the same weekend. Shopping spree continued till the very end and at a certain moment I felt that they would certainly miss their flights if they wouldn’t stop this kind shopping. Gracian was the first one to be picked up. He was accompanied by RK3 and Babu. Then we stopped to pick Babitha and Aliza on the way to Ezhil’s place at docklands. The wonderful and exhilarating feeling of travelling with this group is unusual. Probably this was our last drive together and not a single moment lacked the fun and laughter. The luggage was checked in and disappointment was avoided as everything which weighed over 100 kilos was taken in by the staff. The only upset person was Babu who anticipated that all the chocolates could be eaten alone by him if the weight crossed the luggage allowance.The Singapore airlines took off at 1205 and we returned home in a taxi as a much quieter group and had a distressing silence around.

http://www.myspace.com/sunilkabin

2009-09-14T21:23:00.001-07:00

It was a tuesday afternoon after a heavy lunch. I could see and hear people around me yawning. The infectious yawn spread and in a few moments even i felt like going home and hit the bed. Then a creative idea crept into my sleepy brain. I joined the MySpace. Now i dont feel like sleeping anymore, but check out the world at MySpace.

When the weekend turns tiring

2009-09-06T22:34:00.001-07:00

I have heard people say that they either had a good or a relaxing weekend, some say that they had a rocking weekend, but the last weekend I had was tiring.
The jovial atmosphere of the weekend starts by Thursday evening and lasts till Sunday evening. Mine started on a Friday evening when my set plans for the evening were hijacked by friends who pulled me to a 3D movie. I wouldn’t regret this change of plan as the movie was good and had some wonderful time with my friends which lasted till late night.
The silence of the sound sleep was broken by the ring in the mobile phone which I tried to snooze and thereby unknowingly rejecting an incoming call from Ezhil. The next time I attended the call and things were sent into a panic state when he told me that Sriram and him were already on the way to take the car at the Franklin street.
Saravanan and me got ready in a jiffy and waited impatiently for Gracian at the flinders tram stop. We jumped off the tram just to see Babitha and Eliza crossing the zebra line as if they were walking on a ramp for a fashion show. We took the car and gave Ezhil and Sriram a call to enquire about their whereabouts and got a surprised answer saying that they still are on the way. I was wondering about the journey that they took from their house one and half hours ago and still dint make it to the car rental shop.
We drove down to the Wilsons Promontory and stopped at the Norman beach. After doing the normal stuff that beach goers do at the beaches, we were back on the highway driving home.
Pizza was on the menu for dinner at Babitha’s house and we dispersed for the night. The day was filled with fun and laughter which included a ‘take down’ in the NFS style by Saravanan and a chase by the police at night.
By the next dawn, people were getting ready for the days trip to the Chadstone shopping centre. The oniomaniacs (crazy shoppers) were back on the shopping binge. A thousand dollars was spent just on perfumes by Sriram and Babitha gathered the attention of the girls working at the counter. We reached home tired and weary and I jumped into my bed after a tiring weekend.

Gippsland again: At Wilsons Promontory

2009-09-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

On the top of Melbourne

2009-09-05T07:11:00.001-07:00

Eureka tower is the tallest building in Australia and the southern hemisphere. Standing tall beside the Yarra river and crown casino, this majestic building is 984 ft above the ground. Sriram paid for the entry tickets and the lifts sky rocketed us to the 88th floor in just 36 seconds. The cranky lift in my apartments takes 40 seconds to reach the second floor. We had some coffee on the 88th floor and touched the ground after an hour which would have taken just 8 seconds if we jumped off the roof of the euraka.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

2009-08-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Gippsland - where land meets the waters

2009-07-28T22:41:00.000-07:00

Everyone sat in position with their seatbelts on, the engines roared and the van taxied trough the city roads and took off on the freeway. Hunger simulated the urge to stop for food and spicy Indian food at the Tandoori cottage was a welcome break. Everyone seemed to be in a laid back mood with droopy eyes. We reached the Kick back cottages at around 3.00 AM in the morning t0 find the keys of the cottage left at the door steps. We occupied the cottages 6 and 8. Gracian, Saravanan and I occupied the smaller of the two cottages and the others occupied the larger one. A wonderful night’s silent sleep was broken by a phone call from Prashanth and we were glad to hear such remarkable words in the morning. Fearing more such threats from Prashanth, we were all ready in a jiffy and went to the cottage 8 only to see Prashanth still sleeping under a heavy blanket. Sriram and I set to wander out in the morning and as we stepped out of the house, we could hear the numerous orders for coffee, tea and milk shakes. We went to the nearest bakery to buy some bread and brought some milk and other ingredients to make some coffee. Prashanth was unimpressed with this splendid idea of ours. The 90 mile beach was the nearest place where we all decided to go in the morning.

The sight of the waves hitting the sands was a welcome break and no one could resist running on the wet sands of the beach. Weird feats were tried on the shores and the one which Saravanan tried wouldn’t be forgotten for a long time. He came charging like a bull and came to a sudden halt by burrowing his head into the sands. The usual nagging by Babitha for some solo pictures of her continued through out the day and Prashanth had to work hard with his camera to create solo pictures. The loss of a mobile phone din't bother Prashanth very much and it was not long before he was contemplating on the newer choices of mobile phones that he had. We also had a chance to drive into one of the wineries and taste the exotic red wines. Sriram bought a bottle of wine which was as sweet as sugar syrup and this took him to great heights as it flowed down his throat into his belly.
Long drives and playing cards apart from eating were the only others things that we could do that day. The night was filled with fun and laughter and Saravanan was the epicenter of all this. Gracian who was always at the receiving end never lacked a laugh. This was the time when Aliza decided never to join us again for a trip.
We checked out of the cottages at 10.30 AM and headed straight to the subway and the KFC. The next destination was Buchan caves. The formation inside the caves was wonderful and worth taking some pictures. We had to crawl through the narrow passages through the rocks and reach the huge cleared area inside the rocks. We could see clear water and other structures that took millions of years to form. There was no other place to go and so we entrusted this job to the GPS who guided us to Mt. Nowa Nowa and after a bumpy and exciting drive we reached the place on the top of the mount. The whole land below was looking green covered by the tree canopies and the camera lenses were focussed and shutters just clicked away. We drove back to Melbourne and Madras Banyan tree was the place we had our dinner. Sumptuous amounts of food was ordered and wasted too. We all reached home tired and weary and just had the energy to crawl into the beds and sleep.
The 8 trip goers who adjusted themselves in the white small van along with the taking GPS are:
Aliza, Babitha, Ezhil, Gracian, Prashanth, Sriram, Saravanan and Sunil

Reflections

2009-07-04T01:25:00.001-07:00

Behold! The snow beckons.

2009-06-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

By the rivers of Echuca

2009-06-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

This was not the first time we planned a trip to the south and ended up in the north. Planning for the long weekend started a month before. Cruising to the Tasmanian Islands and spending the whole of three days were in the initial plans. Scepticism overtook the frail minds of humans of getting a full three day weekend and backup plans for a two day trip were planned. Even a trip for a single day seemed inevitable owing to the work conditions. My joy knew no bounds when my manager declared that I could have the weekend off. This resulted in the last minute purchasing and planning. Earlier in the same week, we hardly had more than eight people to join us for the trip. Just before stepping on the gas, Prashanth jumped in to the band wagon along with his professional Nikon camera which weighed more than him and there was a great excitement among the crowd. He had a reputation of turning the dull and lifeless parties into exciting and electrifying ones which are hard to forget. Seven thirty in the morning was the planned time of departure from Melbourne, and as usual we ran late by four hours. Soma, who lived far from the city was tiered of waiting and almost went into deep sleep by the time we reached her place. While others were waiting for her to arrive, Sriram and Ezhil utilized this time to stock up beer and liquor into the car boot. Soon we set the GPS to Echuca and cruised along the freeway. The first break was at Wallan. The group divided into two and half of them entered the KFC the other green leafy vegetable eaters into the Subway. The sign ‘Welcome to New South Wales’ was visible after three and half hours of drive and the watches displayed the time as four thirty in the evening. So we had to bring in the luggage into the boat and were stuck to the mooring as driving the boat after five in the evening attracts a heavy penalty of five thousand dollars and we were even made to sign a form stating this. Dinner was prepared and we all had a wonderful meal and I just couldn’t resist sleeping on the comfortable bed floating on the waters. After a sound sleep, I had all the energy to wake up early in the morning only to hear the noises and see many of them still playing cards. They had been playing all the night long. Gracian was the only guy who was sleeping on the same bed as the others who were playing cards. I also heard the most surprising news that Prashanth had lost all his money to Soma in the game of monopoly. The deceit and fixing by Ezhil and Sriram led to the fall of the great Monopoly baron who has to see defeat for the first time in his life.The engines of the boat roared to life at around eight in the morning and we were left alone in the waters of Murray. The curiosity and inexperience of the amateur captain led to the boat getting wedged on the bank of the river and the captain was fast asleep to see the boat being towed out into the waters. The snake like curves made it even more difficult to steer the boat. It was not just a boat; it was a house floating on the water. We approached a mooring spot with the same enthusiasm which Christopher Columbus might have experienced while landing on the shores of America. Everyone was running on the land after staying on the water for more than ten hours. Time was killed by watching movies, the Russel Peters show and playing cards and monopoly. Food was being consumed with out any delay and beer cans were being gulped down at a regular pace. ‘Russel Peters’ show brought out a belly full of laughs and kicked the weekend ahead. The next day, the boat was steered up the river currents and finally reached the same spot where we set sail a few days ago. We all reached home safe by night and dozed off after some ass kicking of Babu who celebrated his birthday the previous day.Trip was made exciting by ten astonishing partygoers. They are Babita, Ezhil, Gracian, Prashanth, Sashi, Soma, Sriram, Sukanya, Sunil and Vipran.
Babitha: She is more of a tomboy than a girl who considers her family sport to be a game of cards.
Ezhil: Latest fashions which seem un comprehendible are worn every day.
Gracian: Nicknamed candy man.
Prashanth: eat, make telephone calls, and watch a movie while sleeping
Sashi: enthusiastic all through the day
Soma: seldom talked on the first few hours and never stopped talking after that.
Sriram: Beer talks more than words.
Sukanya: he he.. Giggles all the way
Vipran: Let play cards again
Waiting for more such times ahead.

Puffing Billy again!

2009-05-19T03:27:00.000-07:00

We were back to the Puffing Billy, this time with out Prashanth but with a group of seven. This trip was made just for taking a trip to someplace. We jumped into the old steam train which was puffing smoke and I felt that it was rightly named “Puffing Billy”. The first ten minutes of the journey was ecstatic but soon the fly ash from the steam engine dampened the joys. Satya was the one who was enjoying the photo shoot more than the train journey. The water cycles at the lakeside drained all the energy and barely left us afloat on the surface of the water.

Consumption of food was done at regular intervals. This tiring day was culminated with some more food at the Italian restaurant on the Lygon Street.

New found addiction

2009-04-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

Ice cream is more popular than most people think. Indulgence is hard to resist. Ice cream was one of the last items that I would ever crave for. A few months ago, I would have never thought that I could eat a full cup of ice cream. But eating a cone of ice cream from the Mc Donald’s and Hungry Jacks changed it. As Shankar and I walk past either one of these café’s, we inadvertently walk into them and buy some ice creams. One day we decided that this has turned into an addiction and that we would stop buying ice creams from the next day. This strong resolution was not broken for the next twenty four hours till we had a dig at the ice cream the very next day.
The incidents of dumping the ice creams into the nearest bins flashed through my mind on a Saturday evening when I was deliciously licking the ice cream which would have surely found a place among the garbage bin a few months ago. All my friends liked ice creams very much and I was always forced to eat one when we went out. The large buckets of ice creams lying in the freezer never could capture my attention towards them. The creamy cone of ice cream still appears in front of my eyes as I am writing this. I am confused and often doubt if this has become an addiction.

When News and Ads come together

2009-04-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

The emergence of a new chef

2009-04-11T23:28:00.000-07:00

The strong aroma of Indian curry filled the room and I found some wonderfully cooked dishes in the kitchen. Someone has taken an extra effort to cook food in our kitchen which anyone seldom does. After having a long and terrible day at office, which has become very common these days, the mouth watering food spread on the kitchen table is something to crave for. I hurriedly dumped my bad and tasted all the food and each one was better than the other. In fact there were only two curries, one was a cabbage dish and the other was a mixed vegetable curry. Meal with more than a single curry was a luxury at our place and I asked Prashanth the reason for cooking the second one. The answer wonderstruck me and I was standing in the kitchen with my mouth open as if it was stuffed with cabbage and cauliflower. Babu! I reiterated Babu. Why, what happened to him? The lazy bum whom I had to drag and pull to the Coles supermarket, the same guy who never had been to the Indian shop, the guy who never could spot the difference between sugar and salt without tasting it and the guy who could survive on the hungry jacks hamburger, the same Babu preparing something in the kitchen is a news that could shock the entire world. I gathered all my lost senses and asked, Babu Why did you do this? To my amusement, he replied. I came back early from office and had nothing else to do, so I tried my hands in the kitchen. I remembered, this was not the first time he came back early from the office. We had a wonderful supper together and still curry was left over which was used for the lunch next day. This shocking incident was repeated the next day, and it reached the fourth successive day and this no more remains a surprising nor a shocking episode. The day Babu stops cooking will surely be a shocker and I hope Babu continues this for some time to come.

First coffee in fifteen days.

2009-04-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

Though I am not much of a keen coffee drinker, I obliged for a cup of coffee when Sachin and Shankar called me at the coffee time. Passing through the gates of the office to the star bucks or Gloria Jeans for a coffee is a dream. The walls, doors and life inside makes you feel like living in a prison. So we went to the pantry carrying our own coffee mugs for coffee. I dint have a cup of my own, so I borrowed my colleagues cup and started the process of coffee preparation. While the cup was spinning inside the microwave oven, I took that time to talk to my friends. Informal talks were very common and we heard a loud bang inside the pantry and we went into find the milk spilled on the floor and a cup shattered into pieces. The strange door of the microwave was the culprit. Luckily my cup was safe inside and I offered my cup of coffee to Sachin as he desperately needed a coffee. After a quick clean up of the pantry we all joined together over the table and got back into the serious discussions that was interrupted by the explosion in the pantry.

Life at Mysore

2009-03-25T07:21:00.001-07:00

I was back at mysore after a period of nearly two years and I still remembered the way to my place though I could not keep in mind its name. I reached mysore on a Tuesday evening and I decided to surprise my friends about my coming. I reached the place and was waiting for my friends to arrive. I waited and waited for an hour before I lost my cool and called one of my friends. He asked me where I was and I told him that I was waiting at his doorsteps for an hour and this really surprised them and they were excited and I could here some one shouting on the other end. Soon a black Zen Estillo stopped before the house and five guys jumped out of it and rounded me in a flash and soon we were hugging and shaking hands with each other. Soon more guys joined us at our place.
We all left for dinner at around nine at night and were back at midnight. After a wonderful nights sleep, we all reached office at eleven thirty and were out in an hour for lunch. The lunch break lasted for two hours and the coffee break for one hour. That was the first time I ever travelled miles in a car for a cup of coffee. The cute little car has become one of the family member and accompanied us where ever we went. The day at office usually ends with a work out at the gym and swimming at the pool. We always went to the costliest hotels and resturants acoss mysore and I could start feeling the pinch in my pocket and I was left wondering how my friends could afford such a luxurious life style with their Indian salaries.
Most nights has devotional and classical singing accompanied by two guitars, a keyboard and a tabala. Skaraia, Arun and Siju had the wonderful voice and Shino rocked the guitar while the tabala was played by Siju. I was the only one who couldn’t do any of these, so the best thing that I could do was listen and enjoy. ‘Ramani’ was the song that amused me and I tried singing it. I would never forget the day when the front tyre of the car burst while I was driving on the KRS road.Three weeks at mysore passed like a breeze and my heart was heavy on the last day and I never felt like leaving that wonderful place. Skaria and Shino dropped me at the bus stop early in the morning and I took the first bus to bangalore.
My wonderful roomies are Skaria, Sushil, Shino, Rakesh and Abilash. Siju and Arun visited us very often. I missed the company of Srinkanth, the Comamnder and Sugand, the gundan very much on this visit to mysore and looking forward for Skaria's new Honda city car that will be waiting for us at Mysore.

Kuala Lumpur

2009-03-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

After getting a transit visa at the immigration counter in Kuala Lumpur, Pushpendar and I went straight to the Allson hotel in KL. We deliberately parted ways with Sushmitha and Shiana as we wanted the freedom of travelling around the city all by ourselves. We checked into a hotel which looked no different than an average motel in India. We had a quick shower and walked out of the hotel ignoring the calls of the taxi drivers standing at the hotel entrance. We walked out and found a local hotel serving breakfast. I told them that we were looking out for some local food specialties. The boy at the hotel was amused by the English language and he called out to a girl in the kitchen. She came running to us and asked something in Malay. Malay is the native language. I presumed that she was asking me what we wanted for breakfast and I asked her, what all do they serve. Even she dint understand the slightest English. Now this time I was amused and Pushpendar was getting restless with hunger. Then the wonderful idea of using the sign language struck my brilliant mind and I showed her that we needed some food. She smiled and hopefully understood what we need. She pulled us by our hands and took us to a table with lots of different food stuffs served on it. Then she pulled out two plates, put some boiled rice, also put some pieces of chicken which looks similar to the KFC drumsticks. She showed us a variety of curries and asked us our choice. We were confused seeing the large variety of curries. She was smart enough to understand that we were in a state of food confusion; she gave some of the curries which she felt is the best. We took our plates and sat on a table which was located under a ceiling fan. That was the first time I ever had rice as breakfast. Pushpendar dint complain about the rice and he started eating the rice from the plate. I tasted the food and it was very good and tasted much similar to curries prepared in Kerala. As we were eating and relishing, the guy came back and asked something which I never understood. I told him the food is really good. He was excited and called the other two girls to the table and I again reiterated that the food was excellent and they promptly understood and also gave two cups of tea. We licked the plates clean and then we sipped the cup of tea. It was not so good when compared to the Indian tea. We had a few more sips of tea and waited for the bill. The bill of RM 11.50 arrived in a piece of paper which was cut out of a cigarette carton. We paid the bill and were out on the road again and we were more confused than earlier. There were neither busses nor bus stops in sight. We went back to the hotel and this time we approached the taxi driver for the city tour and he quoted RM250 for a 4 hr city tour. As we were only two of us, we included a Sri Lankan guy who was on his way home from Melbourne. So we three set out for the KL city tour. We visited the Palace of the Sultan, the twin Petronas towers, the Minera tower and some other places in the city. The taxi driver was an Indian settled in Malaysia and he took us to an Indian street which looked the same as any street in Chennai. We came back drained out of energy to the hotel and just picked our bags and headed straight to the airport.

Packed and ready to leave.

2009-02-26T19:33:00.001-08:00

On 27 Feb 2009, all my bags were packed and tickets booked to India. We had multiple farewells and drinks in the last week. Every one was excited to go back to India after a long gap of being away from home and good Indian food. I stuffed more than 30kgs into my suitcase and it was on the verge of falling apart. But still I could manage to lift the suitcase by my own. I still remember the time I landed in Melbourne Queensberry apartment; Prashanth was the one who carried my heavy suitcase to the second floor. In fact he was the one who carried every ones suitcases as he was the muscle man in our group.

The whole of the last day passed by uneventfully and I rechecked my tickets, passports and other documents.

The t shirt given as a parting gift by Babu would be worn for the journey. Its still early afternoon and I will have to go home, call the taxi and leave to the airport.

Mobile wars

2009-02-23T21:44:00.000-08:00

Mobile phones never fascinated me and I was of the opinion that mobile phones are to be used no more than calling, receiving calls and texting. The built in alarm in the mobile is a must and often I felt that alarm was more important that the phone itself. My roomie, Prashanth on the contrary is a very much mobile person. He cannot even survive a day or a night with out his mobiles. When I was finding it hard to carry one small mobile, he carries one in each of his pant pockets. Also he is the one who keeps the telecom companies going. Every mobile irrespective of its size and colour has a monthly bill as its life partner. 20,000 INR and 2,200 AUD in a single month’s bill were exorbitant. I have never seen such huge bills in my life. Travelling to India and back in a first class once in three months would be cheaper.

I entrusted with the job of buying the best mobile for me to Prashanth and in a few weeks a PDA was waiting for me. It was a much more than a mobile. It had all the features that my laptop had, in fact more; you can even make calls. So I inserted my SIM card into the new mobile and I was just PDA’ing away. My old cute little mobile was soon forgotten and was lying somewhere below my bed.

The next day I carried my new mobile in my pockets to office. The weight of the mobile was slowing my speed of walk. Every time I unknowingly hit the mobile, it would pain terribly in the hands. The touch screen was making me go crazy and my hands would often strain holding the PDA close to my ears and talking for some time. I survived for a day with the technically advanced gadget and even before I reached home, I was searching for my old mobile. Luckily I found it still lying in the house, I held it close, wiped the dust off and put the SIM back into the old and loyal mobile and switched it on. And lo, its working perfectly fine as ever with out even complaining about the ignorance and lost feeling that it experienced when I just ditched it a day ago.

Now it’s the time for the JASJAM to go in to the closet as my old mobile has won a victory against the latest in technology..

Working with Emilia

2009-02-22T20:56:00.000-08:00

One fine morning I found an attractive young lady sitting in the next cubicle. As I just finished thinking that such nice girls never end up in my team, Peter (name changed) the stern looking manager brought her to my cubicle and introduced her to me as Emelia (name changed) . He told me that she would be the one running the performance testing after I move out. I looked at her face; she had a smile on her cheek and also had a glace at Peter’s face. I just could imagine these two working together. Mili is a Russian by birth but speaks more English than Russian. Her attempt to learn Tamil and Hindi along with Spanish is commendable. This shy and happy going girl had an easy first week at work and as she approached the second week, I could see stress on her face and smoking was her way to beat the stress. The source of stress for all employees is their manager and in this case, the manager was undoubtedly the one who is causing all the strife in her. I really hope that her manager never comes across this blog and even if he does, I will be far away from his sight to view all his unsympathetic looks. The last two weeks at Sensis were the only days where I looked forward to going to office because there was hardly any work for me and all I had to do was sit by her side and watch her doing things like executing a LoadRunner script, drinking a coffee and at times a smoke. Working with Emilia was fun as she could converse in a wide range of subjects ranging from her dog to her work around the world; give opinions and always keep an eye open for learning. I wish her all the best for her days at Sensis and hope she manages to find all the necessary data in my computer.

Babu turns Pro

2009-02-17T05:55:00.000-08:00

I was the one who forced my roomies to buy a TT table. Ajit and Prashanth are good players of TT. I loved playing TT at Mysore and Hyd. This was the main work at office when I was in Ipswich. My friend Naveen and I used to be present daily at the courts after lunch. Some days we were accompanied by Archana and Jessica. After landing in Melbourne, I desperately wanted to play TT. Playing at the health clubs were not feasible, so we decided to buy a table at home. The expert bidder Prashanth pinched a good deal on ebay and soon the table was delivered home. Prashanth bought a costly TT bat and I bought the balls. It was normal at our place to wind up any new stuff after a use of two weeks. Nothing exceeded a usage period of 2 weeks. When all four were present at home, which is very uncommon as Ajit is the one who is always missing. The days he is missing, he can be found either at the Guantanamo bay or at the MCG. Babu, the Singh was seeing the TT table for the first time in his life and felt really proud holding the TT bat in his hand. He showed keen interest in playing this game which he saw someone playing for the first time in his life. Day by day his game improved and soon he reached to levels and would beat Prashanth by a good margin. I am often reluctant to play with him to avoid disappointment of loosing the game. He often challenges Prashanth, Ajit and me for a game. The style with which he plays the game is commendable. If this continues for some more time, Babu will surely become a very good player capable of representing India in the international arena. Wishing him good luck..

On the swing

2009-02-16T17:50:00.000-08:00

I reached home late tired and famished at around 7.00 PM and as I was checking my mail box for mails, I could see my neighbour Nisha waiting for me at the lift. She asked me if I could accompany her for the jog that day to the flag staff gardens. I couldn’t say a ‘no’ but I requested her some time for me to get ready for the jog. As I entered my place, it was filled with the aroma of Indian curry that Prashanth made. I ate some curry and biscuits and felt like a lazy bone. Suddenly I heard a voice shouting ‘Sunil I am ready, are you’. ‘In a moment’ I shouted back.

We started jogging to the flag staff gardens, had some warm up. I never cared about a warm up and stretch even when I played some serious football. But I could see Nisha doing the stretches and warm ups in a more professional way. I remember her saying that she was at the Navy training camp for sometime and also being a NCC cadet in school. Then I remembered my time being a NCC cadet at school. I was always the last one to reach the morning parade sessions just in time for breakfast. After taking the gruelling punishment from the leader, I used to head straight to the breakfast queue. Idly, Vada and upma was the only thing which brought daily to the parade grounds. I had nothing to boast about my NCC career. So I kept quiet while Nisha was describing her adventures as a NCC cadet and at the Navy training camp.

We reached the park and I headed straight to the hanging bars and she to the crunches bench. I felt like a monkey hanging on the bars and admired the strength and stamina of a monkey for being able to hang on to tree branches for so long. I couldn’t resist swinging on the bars like a monkey. I dint even care what the girl along would think if she saw me swinging like a monkey. As I was still hanging, I could see an old lady walking towards me and I thought that she was talking a shortcut to her home by walking across the park. But she stopped in front of me and I felt that she was waiting for me to come down and so I jumped down and went to her. Then she said some thing that surprised me ‘its good to see you hanging on the bars’. I felt amused and told her that I told her that I often liked to finish my day by doing something that made me happy even thought it looked silly. Then suddenly she had a change of her tone and told me, ‘I am very old but still I come sometimes to this park to sit on the swing and I like doing that’. I had to agree with her that ‘age doesn’t matter to be young at heart. She was all cheerful, happy and I could see her enjoying her time on the sings. The child in her was swinging with joy. I went back to the bars, but dint hang on them but involved myself in some serious pull ups. After some time, the old lady stopped swinging and waved a bye and I waved back hoping to see that cheerful face again some day swinging at the park.

Coffee break.. again

2009-02-15T21:57:00.001-08:00

During my tenure at Sensis, we used to have coffee breaks daily. A coffee in the morning and more caffeine in the afternoons was a must for everyone to keep us going. But soon these breaks were forgotten and the coffee mugs were disposed. But again, the good days seems to have returned, breaks in the morning, lunch and post lunch was very common. A plethora of topics were being discussed over a cup of coffee. A call from one of the friends for a cup of coffee was imminent while I read each and every word from ‘The Age’. I never even cared to neither lock my desktop nor switch the monitor off while I was away. The most exciting thing in the coffee break is the coffee preparation. Most of my friends sometimes give me the opportunity to prepare the coffee for them. After a few times of preparation, the amount of sugar and the colour of coffee they like are well known to me. Many a times, we go down the road to enjoy a cup of coffee. The best thing that might go with a cup of tea or coffee is the cigarette. My misconception of a cookie or a biscuit being the irreplaceable mishmash with the coffee was soon replaced by a cigarette. Even though I never smoked, the gratification found on the faces of smokers enthralled me often, but still I lacked the courage to light a fire into my mouth.

Tring.. Tring.. a call from my friend. Before I could utter any words from my mouth, I could hear just one word, ‘come’ before he just hung up. Anybody who experiences this for the first time will go crazy, but this was happening with me for the last 3 weeks. So I just gave this finishing touch to this blog and just walked out for the coffee.

Hope you loved reading about my coffee break, now it’s your time for a break

Oceans apart, day after day

2009-02-11T18:39:00.000-08:00

I have been writing a bit more after the ad words were removed from my site. But still I would believe that 'curiosity killed my crow'. I hate the fact that 'injected load' on to my blog page stopped the cheques on the way. But still I continued writing for passion with no reason.

Bryan Adams has an adorable voice that makes me go crazy. I have heard this song many times in my life and never tickled any emotion in me. But this day, it was different. I felt that there was some thing hidden deep inside the song.

Oceans apart, day after day

And I slowly go insane

I hear your voice, on the line

But it doesn't stop the pain

If I see you next to never

how can we say forever

Wherever you go, whatever you do

I will be right here, waiting for you

Whatever it takes, or how my heart breaks

I will be right here waiting for you

I took for granted, all The times

That I thought would last somehow

I hear the laughter, I taste the tears

But I can't get near you now

Oh can't you see it baby,

You've got me going crazy

As the song faded away from my ears, I am left wondering why these kinda crazy things happen in life and just waiting for some time to wipe away the eroded memories.

Test of strength

2009-02-10T20:20:00.000-08:00

I still remember the day when I over powered Commander and pushed him into the waters. This strong, agile and the muscular man was always my inspiration to hit the gym or sprint on the tracks. On a Saturday morning we sped to an unknown place on a high speed on our motor bike. The CBZ is known for its power and speed. The unexpected hump on the road made us take off from the road, but luckily we landed back on the wheels and we kept going.

We rode through some narrow roads and reached a calm stream flowing through the middle of the woods. It was a good sight and we started running around the rocks with out getting wet. Suddenly a bright idea struck both of us at the same time. One had to push the other into the water and we started the great fight for keeping dry on the land. I was almost sure that I would be the first one to drown in water as my opponent was more powerful like a bull. But the hidden strength in me erupted in all its might and in one jerk commander was in water. Captain was the referee and also took a picture while the ‘great war of the lords’ was going on.

Hoping for more rides and drives back in mysore sans commander and Chief (gundan)

Checking in..

2009-02-09T22:05:00.000-08:00

This is one of the mails that I could pick up from the tons of mails sent by my friends. I never read any story nor care to glance down if its more than a page long. But one day as I was clearing the mails in my Inbox (the work i love the most- deleting stuff), i came across a mail with the subject 'checking in'. I opened the mail and found it larger than a page. But surprisingly I decided to read it. It was one of the stories which brought a tear to my eye and felt like being hit by a satchel of emotions. I put the story below for you to read. Who knows, it might change your life. You read this till here. Now don't stop. Keep reading.

A minister passing through his church in the middle of the day, Decided to pause by the altar and see who had come to pray.
Just then the back door opened, a man came down the aisle, The minister frowned as he saw the man hadn't shaved in a while. His shirt was kinda shabby and his coat was worn and frayed. The man knelt, he bowed his head, then rose and walked away.
In the days that followed, each noon time came this chap, Each time he knelt just for a moment, a lunch pail in his lap.
Well, the minister's suspicions grew, with robbery a main fear, He decided to stop the man and ask him, "What are you doing here?" The old man said, he worked down the road. Lunch was half an hour. Lunchtime was his prayer time, for finding strength and power.
"I stay only moments, see, because the factory is so far away; As I kneel here talking to the Lord, this is kinda what I say:
"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER'S FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY. SO, JESUS, THIS IS JIM CHECKING IN."
The minister feeling foolish, told Jim, that was fine. He told the man he was welcome to come and pray just anytime. Time to go, Jim smiled, said "Thanks." He hurried to the door. The minister knelt at the alter he'd never done it before.
His cold heart melted, warmed with love, and met with Jesus there. As the tears flowed, in his heart, he repeated old Jim's prayer:
"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER'S FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
I DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY. SO, JESUS, THIS IS ME CHECKING IN."
Past noon one day, the minister noticed that old Jim hadn't come. As more days passed without Jim, he began to worry some. At the factory, he asked about him, learning he was ill. The hospital staff was worried, but he'd given them a thrill. The week that Jim was with them, brought changes in the ward. His smiles, a joy contagious. Changed people, were his reward. The head nurse couldn't understand why Jim was so glad, When no flowers, calls or cards came, not a visitor he had.
The minister stayed by his bed, he voiced the nurse's concern: No friends came to show they cared. He had nowhere to turn.
Looking surprised, old Jim spoke up and with a winsome smile; "The nurse is wrong, she couldn't Know, that in here all the while.
Everyday at noon He's here, a dear friend of mine, you see, He sits right down, takes my hand, leans over and says to me: "I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, JIM, HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP, AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN.

ALWAYS LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY, I THINK ABOUT YOU EACH DAY, AND SO JIM, THIS IS JESUS CHECKING IN."

A night at the Crown

2009-02-07T22:39:00.001-08:00

Casino is a place where men come in with high spirits and lots of money stacked in their purses making it a heavy one. That night as I was running around in the casino with my friends, I could hear the pokie machine dispensing lots of coins. Some people are excited when they hear this sound of the coins. Some just remain calm and I often wonder how one can be not excited getting all the money while having fun. I could never find an adrenalin rush at the casino but it always attracted me. Many a times I went alone to this place, put some money and I never remember a single instance where I won some money into my pocket. Excitement hits me when I hear the funny sounds of the machine and the money increasing. It would make me happy but I often forget that I loose more that what I win. It might be the same case with all the people coming into that place. Loosing the smaller amounts dint worry me much. As I was walking pointlessly to find a happy face in the casino, I just stood near the roulette. I was watching the board spinning and the ball rolling, a gentleman took out his purse and pulled out some money from his purse. He put one by one on to the table and I counted them, they were ten in number. Ten, hundred dollar bills makes a thousand dollars. You don’t have to own the money to know that ten hundred dollars make a thousand. Everyone who has been to a school and know how to do some simple maths will know this. But I had to count and calculate twice to make sure that he put a thousand dollars as bet on to the table. Then I felt like watching him play. He bought a heap of coins and started placing them on the board. He almost placed half of the coins that he had in his hand. And there the board started spinning and the ball was set to roll. He was still placing some of the coins on the table and stopped only after the casino guy uttered the words ‘no more bets on this table’ and he waved his hand over the table as he is casting a magic spell on them. I just had a glance at the mans face. He had no change of expressions and was cool as a cucumber. I could feel my pulse racing even though the outcome wouldn’t affect me. Most of the numbers on the board were placed with coins. I felt that he had a good chance of winning as he had his bets placed on more that twenty five numbers on the board. The ball slowly stopped rolling and now was rolling on the numbers. I was watching with my eyes wide open and suddenly the ball landed on the number ‘13’. I searched the board for 13 to find how many bets has he placed on 13. To my horror, he placed nothing on the number thirteen.Probably he dint like the number 13 or he never imagined that 13 could be a winning number. The casino person placed a glass piece on the thirteen and just brushed all the other coins on to the side of the table. This man lost nearly a thousand dollars and I could see him just walking away from the table as nothing has happened. Then I looked at the casino man to see if he has happy. Even he was normal. Why should he be happy? The casino owner is the one who gets all the money while the employee gets his salary in spite of working in a winning or a loosing table. I recovered from the shock and went straight into the pub and ordered for a ‘coke on the rocks’. While I was about to leave the place and go home, I could see the same guy who lost a fortune playing a different game with more money. I dint wait to see the outcome of the game and just left the place wondering how rich that guy might be.

Babu learns to cook

2009-02-04T04:34:00.001-08:00

I have never seen my room mate Babu in the kitchen neither near it nor accompanied us to the supermarket. One day we sent him to the near by supermarket, Coles to get some stuff for home. No particular item was mentioned to him, but I expected him to buy some vegetables, milk and some bread. He came back home and later when I checked the bags; it was full of chocolates and chocolates alone. I couldn’t resist shouting at him for doing such a thing.
Many days later, Prashanth and I stopped eating a heavy dinner. We started eating bread and fruits for dinner. So Prashanth nor I never cared to cook anything for the dinner. But Babu cannot survive a day with out eating rice. He always starts singing when ever he sees rice being heaped on to his plate. This kind of rice eater went mad when the kitchen flames were not lit for more than a week.
Then the man himself set foot in the kitchen, put some rice in the cooker and dared to cook his very first dish, the Rasam. He was delighted to see the rasam turn out into the brown salty water. He was proud of this accomplishment and asked Prashanth and me to taste this Rasam. We heaped our compliments even thought it was not so great in taste according to us.
Day after day, he used to come to the kitchen and I used to instruct him what to do. After a few days, he turned into a better cook and his food was worth tasting.
I still wonder how 'Michael Learnt to Rock'

sans scrupule

2009-02-02T17:45:00.001-08:00

covering the shame

Chinese New Year Day at Melbourne

2009-02-01T19:43:00.001-08:00

The only thing that I am afraid to share with my friend Jeevan is his food. Not fearing that I am going to be whacked if I put my hands in his lunch, but the kind of food stuff that he eats scares me out of my skins. This eater wouldn’t shy away from eating any thing that walks, creeps or crawls. I often think that china or some similar place would suit him better than India or other places where normal food is eaten every day.

I had the worst time when Jeevan and I visited a Chinese food festival on the Chinese New Year day. I could see millions of faces that looked alike gobbling food like stuff which made me weak in my stomach. As we were walking together, I suddenly lost sight my friend and as I was searching for him in the multitude, he arrived with some food stuff and was generous to offer that to me. I resisted even smelling that stuff but I could see him relishing that stuff that looked like kebabs. I asked him what was that and how did it taste like. ‘Its very good’ was the words that I could here from his mouth while he was munching. I moved my eyes from him only to see a small girl eating an octopus like animal. An octopus…, I just had to run away from the place to safety out of reach of the tentacles of the monster.

kidding with the kangaroo

2009-01-29T17:27:00.001-08:00

After a few hours of nagging, we had to go to the place of animals. The koala was closed but the kangaroos were still hanging out in the open. This girl ran towards the herd on seeing them after opening the gate. I could see a amazed look in the eyes of the kangaroos to see some one running towards them. She fed all the leaves to them and once she felt that the kangaroos were no more interested in her feeding, she decided to leave the place.

Scared in mid Air

2009-01-29T17:13:00.001-08:00

News about flights crashing into woods, rivers or taking a nose dive in the air is very common these days. Still we preferred to fly to Gold coast. The courage to fly should still be admired.
We boarded the flight and Prashant, Tina and I were sitting together and Babu as just across the aisle. Prashanth started telling all the weird things that could go in the air and I could see Tina scared to death and I thought she might run to the door and get off the plane. But alas the plane was already taxying and was on the run way. She preferred to stay calm and approach the impending fear with her eyes closed. And I was all calm till Babu reminded me of the ‘Final Destination’ movie. It scared me out my skins and sent a shock down my spine. At one point Prashanth even threatened to push Tina out of the window if she slept at the window seat.

Finally the flight touched down at Sydney and for the flight to Gold Cost I preferred to sit far away from Prashanth who was searching for me to sit beside him.

Log Ride at Dream World

2009-01-29T16:27:00.000-08:00

It was the day that we waited for more than 2 hrs in a queue for a 4 minute ride which included a 2 second adrenalin rush. The log ride was fit for two or three people, but we decided to separate and go in two different logs to avoid the log sinking due to excessive weight. Tina and I finished the ride and were waiting for Prashanth just to see him getting ready for a nose dive with his hands held high. He was coming down in full style at great speed. I was dead scared during those moments and was wondering how he could still be enjoying this kind of ride while I was standing wet with a camera and clicking these photos.

Gold Coast - Surfing away at the Surfers Paradise

2009-01-28T19:55:00.000-08:00

After a months planning, 11 guys set out to the land of beaches and sunshine ‘Gold Coast’. After the initial hiccup of the flight getting cancelled, we took the next flight to Sydney and then to Gold Coast. It was almost sure that we would miss the flight to Sydney as we were really late and we could not find any taxi that could take us to the airport. At last we all managed to reach the airport in different taxi just in time for the flight. The girls almost missed the flight again after being engrossed in a bargain at a shop in the Sydney airport.

I was famished by the time we reached Gold Coast as food was not supplied inside the flight and my friend Prashanth offered me a Subway sub that was in his bag. As soon as I finished eating, I could hear the cries of a gal behind me. It was Maggie crying for the sub. I promised her to buy a new sub, but still she wouldn’t stop crying. Nothing could make her cheer up for the rest of the day.

We reached the apartment and the location of the beaches and landscape was really breathtaking to make every one really cheerful and happy. We explored the neighbouring areas and the city center at night and also dint miss wetting our feet at the beach. The surfers’ paradise was a happening place with numerous pubs and discs. Every one felt that Gold coast was a better place than Melbourne at the first experience. All the guys stayed in a different apartment in the same building to avoid the nagging by girls. Jeevan and I shared a room and soon we dozed off only to remember waking up early in the morning to the bright sunlight entering our rooms from the wind windows.

We all had a quick breakfast and headed towards the ‘DreamWorld’. After a boring but exhaustive day at the dream world we all were back at the apartment only to jump out into the city again at night. We had some dinner which included ice creams from Mc Donald’s and Hungry Jacks. We were surprised to see the fridge stacked with cans of beer and nothing else to eat apart from a few eggs that were lying around.

Every one jumped on to their beds only to wake up fresh with energy on a Sunday morning.

We went out for a morning walk with all the accessories like hats and lots of sunscreen on our sun tanned bodies only to find out Tina carrying her camera out in the morning. I obliged to click some photos for her and often thought of what would have happened to her if camera was not invented. What else would have happened, she would force some one to paint her on a canvass.

The taxi arrived and we were soon in the waters of ‘WetNWild’ having the thrill of our lives. That was the first day that Prashanth and I completed almost all the rides in a park. The whole day was spent in water and the excitement was multiplied with the rain beating hard on our backs. That did not stop us from having all the fun that we wanted to have at the park. We reached home and again jumped into the swimming pool to double the amount of fun for the day.

The third night at gold coast condor apartments was eventless and I could see tiredness on all the faces on the Monday morning.

The difference of opinions created a gap and the group split and headed in opposite directions to Sea World and Movie world. We had a relaxing day out at the sea world except Prashanth who decided to stay back and have some fun over the phone.

The seal show, the dolphin show, the 4D show and the skiing show all added to the enthusiasm. At one point I could find annoyance on Tina’s face when I asked her to look out for a different guy to be her cameraman. Then we had to coax her for more than an hour to bring her back to the swing. She was back again with smiles for more photos.

That evening was the funnies of all the other evenings that we had together at the Gold Coast. That was the night when Babu carried a passport of identification to the hungry jacks and Tina was walking around with sunscreen on her face at night when the moon was shining high up in the sky. We all had dinner at the apartment and then slept early to wake up at 3.30 AM for the flight back to Melbourne.

We dropped everyone at different locations and hurried to work on a Tuesday morning.

Babu’s camera bragging, Tina’s photo nagging, Prashanth’s people Bashing, Maggie smiling, Harry’s drinking and all the other ..ings will remain in out hearts and minds for a long time to come

People who had some good fun at the Gold Coast are mentioned below.

Prashanth
Harry
Jeevan
Sharma
Sabarish
Paramesh
Tina
Maggie
Babu
Sunil

The girl who ended up at the bottom of my contact list.

2009-01-28T19:53:00.000-08:00

This charming, brilliant and ever smiling girl often ends up at the bottom of her friends contact list. It’s not because the features mentioned above are exaggerated, but because of her name. For obvious reasons the contact lists are always sorted in the alphabetically ascending order. If this pre programmed rule could be overridden, I wouldn’t deny moving this contact to the top positions in the list. The reason is because I often call and receive calls from this contact. Once on a boring day when I was absolutely jobless, I was assigning pictures to the different contacts in my list. This picture pops up when you receive a call from the person whom you have assigned it to. I finished assigning appropriate pictures to all the contacts; I still had one more contact left to assign a image. I was confused with what kind of image would suit this person. There were various images like a football, a joker, a sea horse, some funny faces, a palm tree, a heart, a house etc. I was wondering what kind of image would suit this person. I still felt the need of assigning an appropriate image for this contact. I drilled down to a flower and a koala bear face. Naturally I would have assigned this flower to this girl, but I chose to go with the koala bear.

A koala bear, you would certainly get cross with me for putting a bear face against a sweet girls name. But still I felt that I had done the right thing.

Seeing a person for the first time and knowing them better, brings out a picture in your mind. The very first time you assume things and them later those initial assumptions and guesses coagulate or they might just change with time. I haven’t known her much at the time I was setting this contact images.

A koala bear always seems to be confused, sluggish and lacks the mettle to trust anyone. Some days you find a sparkle in their eyes and some days a drop of tear is clearly visible.

As days passed by, and as we became good friends I knew she was much more inclined to the koala bear rather than a flower. A flower just withers up in extreme conditions, but a koala bear can be trusted with secrets. I found this friend to be more trust worthy than many of the other similar kind that I could find around me. So after many days I was happy that I could choose an appropriate contact image for my friend much before knowing her better.

Speaking of contact lists and mobiles, this person has a penchant for loosing mobiles at all the places she has been to. I still hope she has her mobile in possession to lift the call the time I give ring the koala bear.

(Names withheld to protect identity. If you are anxious to know the name, you need to have a look at the contact list on my mobile)

The Mask of Zorro

2009-01-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

Wearing the mask of Zorro...searching for Elena...

Boredom

2009-01-11T22:28:00.001-08:00

No one likes a rough day with lots of work. We all look forward to a day with no work with lots of fun and coffee breaks. The days where the whole time at office can be spent reading emails and news, browsing the internet for ring tones and other stuff to download and most importantly write blogs the way I am doing right now. Slowly even these kind of days start to turn dull and listless. Soon the taste buds start acting neutral to the coffee and tea which tasted like coffee and tea(what else can coffee taste like? can it taste like tea or can tea taste like coffee?). I am wondering of a dreadful situation where there is no internet in the office. No one would have ever felt lonely or bored since the Internet.

All hail the Internet and downloads.

Fourth Graders

2009-01-01T17:31:00.000-08:00

This photo was posted by my friend in Orkut and stumbled over it when i was aimlessly surfing through the Internet. This was a photo of the 4th graders in my school. I could identify many boys and girls in the photo and I was struggling to find myself in the picture. I still remember the day of the photo shoot and I was standing tight on the edge of the bench and holding my breath least I fall down.

It brings back the memories of my school days.

Docklands in Parnorama

2008-12-31T18:52:00.001-08:00

Docklands as seen from the 8th level Harbor View Apartments.

All Smiles with Jacob

2008-12-17T21:22:00.000-08:00

It’s hard to smile or stand after an energy draining dance session on the floor. Searching the whole floor for any kind of fun activity and recognizable faces, we found two familiar faces smiling away behind the glitzy masks. It was our manager Jacob and his family. Jeevan and I dint waste this opportunity to share a place on the photo with all smiles along with Jacob.

Left to Right: Rinku, Jacob, Jeevan and Sunil

Posing with the Infy Australia CEO

2008-12-17T21:19:00.000-08:00

Left to Right: Sunil, Jeevan, Gary Ebeyan, Puneet and Susmita

Sporting French Beard

2008-12-17T21:08:00.001-08:00

Indians with French Beards come together at Melbourne.

Left to Right: Jeevan, Sunil and Gracian

Sitting on the Dance Floor

2008-12-17T21:05:00.000-08:00

Me and Babu Singh sitting on the Dance Floor after an exhausting dance at Hilton.

Photo by: Sriram

Aconsa tree:

2008-11-27T22:54:00.001-08:00

On our way to the Apollo bay, we had a quick stop at Lorne. Prashanth, Alex and me decided to drink a cup of hot coffee. As we paid for the coffee and walked towards the park which was just opposite to the coffee shop, we saw two figures emerging from the shadows holding a can of Bourbon whiskey. Who else can be it? It was Ajit and Pravin (the drinker who turned from a coffee drinker to a whiskey drinker in a day).

As we were walking together, we saw a tree which looked like a Christmas tree but wasn’t. The quest for knowing the name of the tree dint stop the drinkers from guessing all the wild names they could under the influence of alcohol. Then some one from the group named it the ‘Aconsa’ tree (translating it into hindi-‘Yeh Kaunsa tree’ meaning ‘which tree is this’?)

Genie in the Bottle

2008-11-26T04:51:00.000-08:00

Mama, I wanna fly

2008-11-09T04:53:00.000-08:00

The Titanic, neither trains of Indian Railway nor any other large moving objects moved this man of strong will power the way a small flying aeroplane could. Where many people could have been satisfied just by flying in one of those planes, this man wanted to control and fly the bird himself.

Once when we (Prashanth, Lijo, Uttara, Ajit and me) visited the RAAF museum, there was a small plane in bright yellow and white colour. I would have called it a banana and cream. I could see this genius observing the banana (the yellow plane). That was the day he decided to fly one. Soon in a few days he was flying high around the city of Melbourne in a small plane and we all are still happy that the thought of landing that plane on the roof of our Queensberry house dint strike him while he was at the cockpit.

Guess the bigger picture!

2008-11-09T04:49:00.001-08:00

This pose was never meant to be captured the way it was. But the photographic skills of Prashanth got the better of the situation and this photo was captured. But I would still say that Prashanth wouldn’t have dared to take the same shot from the front. This is the question which can be only answered by Lijo.!!!

Forced to write

2008-11-02T22:30:00.001-08:00

Recently a friend of mine requested me to update my blog and from that moment I was thinking of something to write. I lacked the theme to write something about the flamboyant girl who actually requested me to write.

I thought that she might be an Anglo Indian when I heard her name and confirmed that she is an Indian the moment I met her. I always refute her claims that she looks like a ‘Mallu’ or a keralite. This was the girl who called us for a coffee twice a day and my colleague and me always had to oblige her request for the coffee breaks in spite of the heavy work pressures we had and we always noticed that she takes all the pressures of work in the office like a song. I never had the coffee breaks since she left the work place that we all worked together.

The most important characteristic of this girl is that she is the only girl that I always pick a fight with. A war of words and even sometimes actions is inevitable when ever we meet.

She has a charm in organizing trips and parties and forcing people to join her in the outings and we still commend ourselves for not giving in to the constant pressure of joining them for the outings. We often had the best of times when ever we went out for dinner and also often cook and eat together as a group.

This nice girl was surely a good friend of us.

By the time I decided to stop writing and realized that I never mentioned any names in the writing, it was late and I had to hurry and leave home of the day.

Cleaning the House

2008-10-31T04:26:00.000-07:00

I rushed home after office avoiding the game of footy which I usually play every evenings just to clean the house as we were shifting out of Queensberry’s on Nov 1st. But Praveen and I managed to peep into Dan Murphy’s to buy a few drinks for Alex and Praveen. I could see the enthusiasm on the face of the newbie drinker. Prashanth and I divided the work and I got the work of cleaning the bathroom as usual. We all had lots of varieties of food stuffs just to lessen the weight that we had to carry to Spencers but still Prashanth dint shy away from ordering more food. I also saw him stuffing a whole boiled egg into his mouth which would have certainly choked me. The Murthabak chicken was finished by Alex and he still had place for more. The whole room seemed to be in a mess and all the eaters seemed not to be bothered about their surroundings. The movie was still playing and I was typing this on my laptop.

Quitting Smoking

2008-10-27T03:49:00.000-07:00

‘Cigarette smoking in Injurious to health’ is well known to smokers and non smokers alike. But why do smokers still smoke? Can’t smokers read? The dangerous stuff that makes men and women smoke lies rolled inside a cigarette. A suitable punishment to this stuff is ‘burn to death’ and that’s why they smoke a ‘cigarette to death’ so that a dead cigarette can never ever harm a persons’ life again.

A genre of men who are intelligent and can read, but still want to smoke can breathe in the smoke of a ‘Cigar’. AJ (name changed for obvious reasons, but still if you manage to co relate this person, I bet you are smart) belongs to this smart group of men who are very less in number. I haven’t seen him smoking for the last 2 months. But one day I was surprised to see a cigar in his hands and heard him say ‘I have quit smoking cigarettes’ and lighting the cigar at the same time.

Exchange Rates INR-AUD 'The Downfall'

2008-10-13T22:34:00.001-07:00

Graph for the last 6 months

Graph for the last 10 years

Puffing Billy

2008-10-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

We were not disheartened even at the idea of boarding a bus to cover a distance of 4 kilometres from Burnley to Camberwell due to the railway track maintenance. I never had a trouble with the bus journeys except in my childhood days. I still remember the times when we had to board a ‘fast passenger’ bus from Trivandrum to Quilon. Those 3 hours of time was the most terrible of the times that I ever experienced. But Prashanth still has a problem with busses. He likes travelling long distances by road only if it’s a car.

We were absolutely tiered by the time we reached Belgrave and we had to take some rest at the station before we went into the Puffing Billy station. Just as we came in, the train to Lakeside just started to move.

The horn of the old steam engine was wonderful to hear.

Puffing Billy is the train run with a steam engine which was built in the early 1900 to carry timber from the country side into the city. It still runs today and serves as a major tourist attraction.

We tried to climb the steep hills later. But we lacked the strength to climb and felt that we can never make it to the heights. So we turned back and started the way back to the bottom and then headed straight towards a restaurant as usual. This was the first time we felt very weak to walk. So we thought to abandon this trip and come back some other day.

Shopping was the next best thing when you feel tired. We reached the DFO at Cheltenham and arrived in a taxi to the shopping mall. It was a big mall, but we managed to cover the whole area in a record time of ten minutes which was very unusual for Prashanth and me who take at least an hour to walk through all the aisles of the Safeway and BigW. We took a taxi again to the next shopping mall ‘The Southland Shopping’. No one could stop Prashanth from buying junk from the nearest Mc Donald’s. He could never resist from eating those French fries.

Why men write blogs?

2008-10-02T05:40:00.000-07:00

Men just don’t write blogs but also read them. Not only men write blogs, even women write them. Usually I come across many blogs while I surf the Internet which most of them are written by men. I still wonder why women don’t write blogs and put them on the Internet for the world to read. Is it they don’t want to write and always love reading or don’t they have anything to write. Its not that they don’t have nothing to write, because they do write much more than what men do except that they write a Diary. Many girls have a personal diary and carefully record all the events that happened in their lives. How can they put them all on the Internet?

So I found out the answer for the boggling question, why men write blogs. They can also write this kind of stuff when they have nothing else to do..

On the unexplored paths

2008-09-29T06:51:00.001-07:00

As usual we woke up earlier that we do on a weekend to catch the 07:48 AM train to Frankston. This was not an unplanned trip as we always do. We always plan out journey after we turn up at the train station. But this was very unusual as we planned for this trip for more than a month but some or the other reasons prevented us from making this journey to the French island.

We took a taxi to the station at Richmond and took tickets from the ticket vending machine standing opposite to the customer service center which was open. I still wonder why I couldn’t see that open.But, why French island when there are millions of other places around Melbourne? We once ended up at a place called the Stony Point. The pristine places and the flora attracted us so much that we decided to come back to this place, not just to this place alone but trave further and reach the island which was visible across the shore. This mysterious island fascinated us and we wanted to get there crossing the waters that separated us from the island.

As we bought our tickets for the ferry and walked towards the jetty we saw a familiar figure walking with a dog that was running after him. He was the man who owned the ‘Wattle’. He recognized us instantly and asked us if we liked the place so much and that we are back again. We replied that we certainly liked the place so much and this time we are off to the French island. We enquired about his ship, if it was ready for a voyage and we received a negative reply. We came to know that he never had been to the French island in spite of having a ship of his own which could take him to any island.The ferry sounded the horn and we were on the ship to the French island. The cold winds hit us but nothing stopped us from standing on the top of the ferry. We captured some amazing moments on the ferry and ran towards the

land as soon as we reached the ‘Tankerton’ jetty on the French island. We walked and walked for miles and we were the only two souls walking on that island. The island seemed to be deserted but we could see lots of cars that were scrapped and stripped. It seemed that something terrible happened to the people who where living on this island. We were told that the total population living on the island is around 60. we also came across a cricket ground and a primary school which made us wonder why they needed a ground and a school on this island.We walked on and on and suddenly gripped by the fear of lions and tigers attacking us, we took a long piece of wood which could help us to fight them off. We were warned of snakes on the island, but luckily none of the snakes surprised us that day. We walked and walked on the never ending tracks of the island.

Prashanth was busy clicking photos and I was the one guarding us from any attack of any wild animals from behind. I could see Prashanth holding tight on to his camera least any monkeys of kola bear takes it away from him.We had a huge burger at the only restaurant on the island and we reached the jetty much before time and took rest near the waters till the ferry arrived.We landed at the Stony Point weary and tired. We had some coffee and were on the train back to the city.

'when Plates and glasses go missing

2008-09-20T06:05:00.000-07:00

Its not unusual to find whiskey glasses under the bed and plates in the next room. They dont change the location by their own, but they are either put there by Ajit or plates taken away while eating. One morning I was waken up from my good sleep by the slighest movement of the door and found Ajit sneaking in to the room and munching the Chicken Biriyani which was left over from the previous days dinner. I was surprised to see this sight and questioned why he was eating Biriyani so early in the morning. I pulled the blanket over my head and the next moment heard the door opening and noticed Ajit eating the biriyani in a plate and walking towards his room and that plate was never found again in our room.

This was not the first incident when plates and glasses started ending in Ajit's kitchen sink. Moving of things and other stuff either way not new to the residents of the Queensberry street.

The next time you find plates or glasses dissapear, you know the place to find them....No 11 Queensberry kitchen sink...

Welcome to Williams Town

2008-09-12T22:35:00.001-07:00

We planned for a trip to the French Island but had a change of plans just before boarding into the trains due to the extremely high agile methods used for planning.
We travelled west and ended up at Williams town after a change over at Newport.
As soon as we got down the train we saw some water which made us run towards it. Prashanth and me realized that we have a serious weakness for water in any form apart from taking a bath in the mornings.
The walk around the coast was very long and tiring and we also had a narrow escape from a dog bite. Then the tired and weary travellers entered a near by restaurant and devoured a large pizza and again set out to travel more.

We waited for the next train back to Melbourne and as we saw the train approaching the station, we just had time to swipe our metcards before jumping into the train to avoid being caught by the ticket checkers on the train. We got down at Melbourne central and went to Aldi for some shopping and soon were back at home and were soon watching a Tamil movie… as usual..

Stony Point travel

2008-09-12T05:01:00.000-07:00

A Sunday saver ticket was bought and we boarded the first train to depart from the flinders station. This train was bound to Frankston. So we were on our way to Frankston, a place which was not new to either of us. As we were on the train, we saw some good places on the way and couldn’t stop jumping out at Carrum. Prashanth started clicking as usual. We then proceeded to Chelsea and clicked more photos. We then reached Frankston and spent some time at a near by shopping mall. We then hurried back to the station to catch a diesel line to Stony Point.

As were nearing the Stony Point, the trees and greens increased and it was really soothing to the eyes.

We jumped out of the train and ran towards the sea, it was an awesome sight. We walked around the place and had a coffee from the only shop around.
We had a chance to talk to a person who owned a tug boat and calls it the 'Puffing Billy' of the seas.

More pictures were clicked and we caught the last train home. we switched on the projector and started watching all the pictures clicked on the day and ended watching a movie and slowly went into deep sleep.

Lijo Thelliyil Mathew AKA Vakkachan

2008-09-02T05:42:00.001-07:00

Lijo T Mathew was born in Kerala and spent most of his time there in ‘Gods own country’ and then later moved to Bangalore and was in Melbourne for a short period of time.
I had heard about Lijo before I had a chance to meet him in person. A red tie and a moustache was his feature that I still remember. An ardent movie buff and a mad Mohan Lal fan was he and never missed any of his greatest hero’s movies. He had a vast knowledge about movies but losing a bet of 50$ to Ajit was a set back and then never stopped losing money in any bets.
He is a very competitive drinker but only next to Ajit. The very first day at Melbourne started with a bottle of ‘Jim Beam’ and I remember carrying a bucket of water when asked for a bottle of water.
I am usually woken up by the sounds of plates cluttering, water boiling on the stove and the wonderful aroma of the curry that he makes early in the morning. Prashanth or I never complained about this early morning mess because it was the only source of food for the afternoons.
The moustache and the smile that reveals a broken tooth was famous among the girls in and around his workplace and I know a few of them who are crazy about this guy. Sundays are dedicated for a Malayalam mass which I feel is the longest one and a half hour in my life. He never missed any Sunday masses and was often accompanied by Tina and me. One Sunday at Ginifer had in store the shocker of our lives which is still a complicated thing to put in words and I still can’t resist laughing when I remember that incident which took place after the Sunday mass.
A calm and relaxed person was he at work and was always surrounded by gals and his other ‘Billing’ module team members. I often took the liberty to call him to my desk for getting my doubts clarified even while he was busy with his work.
Searching for the restaurants that serve rice and curry was his usual thing when we go out for a meal. Evenings were a fun and a game time with Lijo and me playing football and Ajit and Prashanth joining us occasionally.
The last day was again spent by gulping a bottle of Bundaberg and setting off to India via Brisbane. A long stop over of 15 hours would have made vakkachan crave for some sleep by the time he reached home and Ajit had gone back to his old style of enjoying a drink with himself.

Flying away from Melbourne

2008-08-30T04:29:00.000-07:00

It was a Saturday, the August 30th and it was just a normal weekend except for the fact that we are out of the bed early on weekends and usually late on weekdays. The packing started early for Lijo and I was still in bed watching him stuff all his clothes and other belongings into a black suitcase.
By 11 AM we (Lijo, Prashanth and I) were out of the house and were walking towards the Queen Victoria market. As were strolling around the market we were joined by Tarun and Praveen. Lijo bought some souvenirs from the market and Prashanth bought a bag for his camera. I bought a hooded jumper for myself.
Then we all went to the Indian shop and brought some food stuffs and then we all went to Taruns house.
The house was neat and clean and was fitted with all antique things. Then we all were back at our house and Prashanth made some tasty dosas for everyone. Everyone had their stomachs full and it was 5.00 PM and it was time to call the taxi to the airport.

Lijo checked in his luggage and we were waiting for him to go in for the security check. At 6.45 PM we all hugged Lijo and bade farewell as he started to walk towards the security area. We also could see him searching for the gate. Even then I could see Prashanth clicking snaps.

We took a taxi back home only to find Ajit drinking alone with a heavy heart as his good drinking partner had left Melbourne.

Drinking away...

2008-08-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

There was a time when we used to stay awake all through the night with books and sipping coffee and tea. This day was no different from those days, just that we were drinking whiskey and rum the whole night.
This happened that day neither by an accident nor was it planed days before. A bet was drawn between Lijo and Prashanth for a hefty sum of two hundred Australian Dollars. The bet was to drink one peg more than the other and he who does so would be declared the winner. Drinking was not a new thing for Lijo and he considered himself to be the winner before the race started. Lijo nor I ever saw Prashanth any thing other than a orange juice or a can of coke.

The long race kicked off at around half past eight at night and I was still at the office staring at my monitor and hitting the keyboard as hard as I can. I arrive home at around nine only to see the race going on at a high speed. Each one had a glass of whiskey in their hands. To my surprise, Ajit seemed not to be drinking and to my curiosity I questioned why Ajit was not drinking. Then came the answer that the referee for the day had to remain sober. I knew that controlling his thirst for whiskey would not last for long, but still he stayed away from the bottle till eleven at night. The fast pace of the race slowed down by eleven and both Lijo and Prashanth were having a tough time gulping the drinks down their throat. The levels of bottles were going down slowly. After sometime a third bottle of whiskey appeared on the table from no where. It was Ajit’s drink.

The two main competitors in the game already slowed down when they bottles just reached a quarter levels. Then to make the game more interesting, Ajit pitched in and challenged the already drunk guys that he would drink the whole bottle before the other two did. When 400 dollars was at stake, no one agreed as no one dared to challenge the DK (the Drinks King). During this time even I gulped down two bottles of beer and settled down at the corner of the room.
When the great challenge was in progress, the drunk guys forced me to walk on the Lygon street just with shorts and a shoe on. And while I was walking back to the room from the Lygon street I suddenly found that some one has pulled my shorts down. Then I found out that a human quality called shame has moved out from me and I just pulled them back to position and resumed my walk.
It was 3 at night and still there was no winner for the game except that Ajit had an empty bottle in his hand. By 4 the last drops were poured into the glasses and the one to drink the glass first would emerge as the winner. The excitement grew and the tension mounted as both the competitors were evenly paced at the moment. By 4.30 Prashanth drank is last drop from the glass and emerged the winner and Lijo followed closely and finished 3 seconds later.

The most coveted award of 400 dollars was given away by the Drinks King to Prashanth.
After the war of the bottles, I could find a place to sleep at around 4.30 AM in the morning and had to walk with half opened eyes to the office.

That was the night that a drinker would love to have and no one would ever forget that soon.

Birthday Bumps

2008-08-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

It was 9 August. We all had tight schedules at work and had plans to blast off on that Friday night. Co incidentally it was Prashant’s Birthday. We all secretly devised a plan to give birthday bumps as hard as ever to the strong guy. It was a bit late in the evening when we left the work place. We went straight to Dan Murphy to get some bottles of whiskey and rum with Sinjith, our manager and Lijo. As soon as we reached home, a half bottle was gulped down by Sinith and we were waiting for Ajit to arrive and join the party. Lijo was drunk and was soon rolling on the bed and Sinjith had to leave as he had a train to catch.
It was just 20 more minutes to 12:00 AM. Even the birthday boy, Prashant was under a heavy blanket holding on to his mobile. Even I was on the bed trying to catch some sleep. Just as I was about to sleep, Prashant’s ‘mofile’ started ringing and it was followed by a series of wishes from the country and abroad. The time was 1.00 AM and still there were no signs of Ajit.
Some sounds at midnight woke me up from my good sleep and I saw Ajit gulping down a few bottles all by himself. It was just because Lijo dint wait for Ajit to join the drinks party and wanted to take a sweet vengeance by drinking all alone at night.
Then it was morning, I presume. Ajit’s mobile kicked us out of our good sleeps. I could hear Lijo shouting some thing in his sleep. Probably he was curing that damn ‘mobeel’. By morning Ajit was gone again.
We all geared up for the days activities. We all wished Prashanth a ‘Happy Birthday’ and waited for his treat and forgetting the bumps for ever.

When the salary strikes

2008-08-02T06:56:00.000-07:00

After working hard for a month, the sweet reward was received in the form of salary on 31st July. Money was overflowing from all directions and plans for spending all of them were devised much earlier.
On this happy occasion, Lijo decided to treat all his friends. So we set out to Namaskar India, a restaurant nearby which serves Indian food. Lijo and Ajit were already on a high and still they wanted to consume liquor at the restaurant. They ordered some whiskey and waited impatiently for their drinks to arrive. Prashanth and I ordered a lassi each and were given some thing which was white in colour. Then later we came to know that only one lassi was available at the restaurant and the waitress divided the lassi equally and added some water to make it into two glasses.
Lots of food was spread on the table and a meal is never complete till one digs into the plates of all others sitting at the table. A single cup of tea placed before me at the end of the dinner was a surprise.
By 11.00 PM we were back at home and were on the bed watching ‘Meesa Madhavan’ and soon were in deep sleep and were dreaming of the next month’s salary.

No 10, Queensberry street

2008-08-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

Many people came, saw and stayed in the room 10 on the Queensberry Street. It was always a most sought out place for girls to stay. The secret lies in the near by room no 11.

Tina was the first to arrive in the room 10, but she moved out after a week.
Then came Uthra and she stayed there for two weeks. while she was in room 10, she cookes some delecious meals for us.

Kiran was the one who sticked on to the same room for a month.

I am still waiting to see the next one to move in to No 10 Queensberry. Not just me, everyone is anxious to see the new face.

Why did the chicken hide in the freezer?

2008-08-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

Lijo and I returned home after a day’s hard work to find Prashanth sleeping at home under a few heavy blankets. A few packets of biscuits and some food stuffs lying at home disappeared into the mouths of hungry and ravished men. We quenched our hunger and then relished some ice cream lying in the refrigerator for a few days.
All the three of us went out for a walk to the city center and came back with our tummies full of junk.
After a few moments we arrived back at the house Ajit rushed into our room. After puffing out some smoke from his nostrils and gulping a few glasses of scotch, he felt a small trace of hunger in his stomach. Then a series of ideas ran through his mind and then decided to pull out the hiding chicken from the freezer. Soon the chicken was spinning inside the microwave. Spicy masala and red chilli were added to the chicken and was looking gorgeous a bride soon to get married. It was loaded on to the electric stove where it transformed into a tasty chicken curry waiting to be consumed. It all ended and faded into the nights sleep.

The gang at Melbourne

2008-07-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

I was a bit apprehensive before coming to Melbourne. The question whether I can find some passionate people who are always ready for a game here in Australia. But when I set my foot in the land of the OZ, I was soon surrounded by a gang of men and women who were always on the high on spirits.

Let me introduce all my friends.

We call him ‘Australian pandi’. Prashant a big body builder and an untiring photographer. He has a big heart and an equally big appetite. All he lives for is food. Movies and a few camera clicks. An electronic gizmo geek and a mobile phone expert and consultant. Loves all the spicy foods but never dares to put them any of them into his mouth.

The other gangster is nick named ‘Meesa madhavan’. The only guy with a moustache under his nose and loves Malayalam movies. Lijo Mathew from Kottayam never misses a Sunday mass. The undisclosed truth behind this Sunday going still remains a secret.

Next in the list of friends is a vagabond and a heir to an ancient royal throne who hails from Mumbai. Ajit wanted to be a pilot and was forced not to fly because of his weight and woos all girls with his model looks. One thing that Ajit and Lijo have in common is their choice of drinks.

This girl goes crazy on seeing a camera. Once the camera is ready for a shoot, she is all set with the poses. The repertoire of poses she has is unlimited. Tina is a girl with a smile in all the photos.

I wanted to write about all the guys and girls I know in Melbourne, but the lack of time prevents me from writing any more and will have to stop here… yes right here..

When the House turns house full

2008-07-27T06:53:00.000-07:00

I travelled far away from home to the ends of the world to be alone from my brethren, but still I cannot escape seeing or bumping into them once in a while. I often wonder why there are a lot of Indians out there in the world. Are there more Indians living out of India than with in the country?
In a country where there are more people and less jobs or less no of people willing to do a job, it is not surprising to find all the country men desperately willing to fly out of the borders. People are happy working on all kinds of jobs which they even never dream of doing back in their country. It is the lack of the dignity of labour or an uneven pay among the working class. The huge differences in the pay amount the different working group has created news classes among the working people, the top class working men and women, the middle class, the lower class and the even lower class. The day when this gap bridges, men will be much happier than what now they are. Its not just the dearth of jobs not the money that make people fly away from that country, its also the respect and dignity that a person receives while doing that job in that county.
Hope this situation changes and our country progress much ahead that what we were yesterday and what we are today. I often wonder “has the house turned houseful” when more than half of the seats are still un occupied?

Marathon walk to Thomas Town

2008-07-22T04:17:00.000-07:00

It was the day when we walked around 25 kilometers in a day. We started our day at 7AM and lasted till 10 PM at night when we ended up home from Melbourne airport. It was the day we made a history by carrying a laptop along with us when we went out for a long walk.

Visiting Werribee

2008-07-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

With high and exuberant spirits we jumped out of our door steps and were waiting on the road expecting a limousine to pick us and transport the gang to the zoo. But to our disappointment we saw a white Toyota Camry with Ajit in the driver’s seat.

We all jumped into the car and set of on a journey with various destinations. Werribee open range zoo was on our list of places to visit, but on this day our plans changed. We decided against going to the open range zoo. We hired a GPS along with the car and searched for ‘nearest places of interest’ and set out following its directions.

Soon we reached a place called ‘Point Cook’. The calm beaches and the plants on the shore was an awesome sight. Jelly fishes were also found talking a snore on the wet sands. The high rise buildings of the city were faintly visible across the waters. The happy looking peacock was dancing away to the faint tunes of the wind.

We proceeded towards the RAAF, the Royal Australian Air Force. The sentry at the gate pulled out her gun seeing the weird faces among us. But not before too long, she came to know that we were vagabond visitors who had no other place to visit in Melbourne. We were let in and had the rare chance of seeing some of the ancient flying birds that once ruled the skies across the world.

But we could hear the animals calling from the distant and we had to change the course of travel toward them. After travelling for some time, Werribee was in sight and a hippo was at the gate to welcome us. After shelling some hard bucks at the entrance, we were let into an open van. Prashant’s joy knew no bounds as he saw the animals in the open land and missed no opportunity to shoot then with his obsessed high-priced specialized camera. Our eyes wandered all around for the look out for a kangaroo, but to our disappointment we found none.

As we were walking on the small trail, a lion’s roar caught us by surprise and made us jump out of our skins. We saw the lions from a very near distance but a thick pane of glass kept us away from becoming the food for the lions. The crazy monkey’s screams and jumps could not attract our attention and we just ignored those creatures and walked towards the exit. We had a wonderful experience in the zoo and everyone was feeling lighter in their wallets at the end of the day.

But nothing could quench our spirits and we sped towards the great ocean road. We enjoyed a drive on the great ocean roads with long beach on the side which seemed to end no where.

On the way back home we also hopped into an Indian store to utilise the opportunity of carrying stuff home in a car which usually never happens. We came back home safe and soon dozed off under the warmth of the heavy blankets.

Posing at the Docklands

2008-07-14T06:53:00.000-07:00

Place: Melbourne Docklands

Time: On a sunday afternoon

Photographer: Prashanth Nair

The Fourth Face

2008-07-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

On a Saturday morning, we set out to the east with no destination. We walked and walked aimlessly on the Melbourne roads and pavements that led to the suburbs. We had a quick look into all the shops that displayed stuff that caught our attention. As we were walking away from the city, an old bridge across the Yarra River seemed a good spot to click some pictures. A small trail by the side of the river seemed to lead us some where to distant place. We clicked pictures and walked along the silent river. Suddenly three faces came out of the wall and stared into our eyes. I gave a stern at the weird face only to find a smile on their faces. Finally after hours of walk, a highway came into sight.

Welcome to Thames Valley Park

2008-02-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

I was out of my bed by 5.0 AM in the morning which occurs only when I have to leave to some unknown place or I have some significant work which is more important than my sleep. The previous day we all parted by promising to meet at the Ipswich rail station by 6.30 in the morning. I wanted to be the first one to be at the station and I arrived at the station only to find Naveen waiting for me. Anyways he lives very near to the station and it won’t take much time for him to reach the place. Even Archana arrived just in time to board the train to London Liverpool.

After an hour of travel we reached the Liverpool Street and headed towards the Paddington in the metro. Our friend Naveen was astonished seeing the particularly clean trains and their good speeds. The travel in the London underground metros always delighted me. We inadvertently hopped into the slowest possible train bound for Reading at the Paddington that around an hour to reach Reading which we could have reached in 25 minutes by a fast train.

We were all thrilled at the sight of the Thames Valley Park which was visible from the train. We hired a taxi and went straight to the Rainbow hotels which Naveen had booked for us the previous night. We just dropped all the bags at the hotel room and took the next taxi to the Microsoft Thames valley park.

A few software giants like the Microsoft and Oracle were located there. We made our way into the reception and waited for Mr. Richard Florence after getting our visitor passes. The magnificent building and the excellent facilities inside the Microsoft enthralled us. We were looking forward for the lunch even as Mr. Richard was forcing some technical non sense to us who were in no mood to accept that. The lunch was superb and we all had a share of the free drinks available there.

Our plans for enjoying three days at the Microsoft office were cut short by Richard who dint like the idea of us being there at his office. By 3.30 PM we were escorted out of the building and even never got a chance to try the latest X boxes at the Microsoft. Even the photos taken by us in the lawn were forcibly deleted by the security.

After a hard day we all just walked back towards the hotel making plans for the rest of the day. We planned to go to South hall and enjoy some good Indian food stuffs and we all were soon on the train back to Ipswich.

Christmas along with the Santa in UK

2007-12-29T13:24:00.000-08:00

Plans for Christmas were planned months ahead and my travel back to Indian surely seemed to spoil all the plans. We planned to meet up in Kavitha chechis house in Cardiff for a Christmas blast. But I had to hurry to be back in UK in time for Christmas.
Kutten chetan and I agreed to meet up at the Victoria coach station to travel to Cardiff together. But kutten chetan was busy with some cooking at his friends’ kitchen and had to race against time to reach the coach station before the coach left the place. At last he reached with a few minutes to spare. We boarded the ‘megabus’ and started our journey to Cardiff for the Christmas.
We reached Cardiff by 8.45 PM and kutten chetan treated me with some burgers and French fries along with a coke that night. We later took a taxi home and reached ‘clos bendery’ in ‘Rhiwbina’ and scared monkutten out of his skins. Suraj chetan and chichi arrived a few minutes later.
I was woken up by the sounds of chotu in the morning, who was jumping with all his might on kutten chetan who was sleeping on the floor. He was little kid with high energies and soon became good friends with me. That day passed uneventfully except the occasional shouts and cries from monkutten and the wonderful food prepared by ammachi. The tasty food triggered my dead appetite and I had food in quantities that I never had before. We tried to fly an aero plane which was rather fit to play on a floor. We went to the town center in the evening after buying a few drinks. We had a delicious Italian pizza served by a beautiful Italian girl at the table. We continued drinking from our bottles and kutten chetan was upset with my drinking habits. We searched the place for good pubs or discos but couldn’t find any and returned home disappointed.
The next day was Christmas and tasty food filled our bellies and we sang the Christmas songs in our hearts. We went to a morning mass and returned home via the hospital to find some exciting food waiting for us on the table. I was never this hungry before.
The next day I had to return and chichi and suraj chetan dropped me at the Cardiff castle bus stop and kutten chetan was leaving a few hours after me. I was also carrying two bottles of ‘payasam’ which ammachi bottled for me.
I arrived in London at around 7.00 PM and went straight to Liverpool street to check out the night life and had to reach Upton park with out finding any there. I took a train to Ipswich the next day from Stratford and arrived back at my house after six long days.
I was recharged and happy after a wonderful Christmas.

Unprepared for the cold winters.

2007-12-29T12:41:00.000-08:00

I was fully prepared for the cold winters before arriving into the UK. Thermals, sweaters, jackets and woolen gloves accompanied me along with my other luggage. I landed in the Heathrow airport terminal 3 after a nine hour long flight from Mumbai. I had to fly an hour from Hyderabad to reach Mumbai.
There was no delay at the immigration check as I was entering the country for the second time. ‘I was on a holiday for one and a half months’ was the reply given to the surprised immigration officer. I collected my luggage and headed straight to the Heathrow express after purchasing my tickets. This time I had the confidence of taking my own means of travel apart from a taxi as I had a good experience of traveling across UK and London. I got down at the Liverpool Street and boarded a rail to Ipswich. I hired a taxi at the station and reached the address given to me by Nitin. I just dumped my luggage in the room given to me and pulled the warm duvets over me for a cozy nights sleep.

The next day I woke up early and left to office along with Gaurav. The whole day was uneventful but for the night which came too early. By 4.30 PM everything was dark and I felt depressed on seeing this. I was prepared for the cold, but wasn’t mentally prepared for this degree of freezing cold and darkness.

Travel to Chennai

2007-12-06T23:38:00.000-08:00

I was not visiting Chennai for the very first time and still have the memories of roaming around Madras when I was a kid. In those times there were no direct trains to Kerala and we had to break our journey in Madras. Usually the whole day was spent in the city of Chennai seeing different places under the scorching sun or simply staring at others in the huge railway waiting room.
The best times were when we go to the Parry’s corner to see a variety of electronic goods and clothes spread around in small shops stretching a few miles. This certainly ignited the passion for electronic items in me. Though I couldn’t buy anything that time, this time I had the money to buy any stuff that attracted my attention. But alas I couldn’t find any good items nor could see the life and energy that existed in the olden days. Every thing has changed at the Parry’s.
One a Sunday I also found some time to go to the Marina beach all alone and sit there staring at the waves hitting the land. I boarded a local train back to Tambaram and from there a bus to Sholinganallur, where my Infosys office was located.

Driving to the F1 Silverstone track.

2007-10-22T13:27:00.000-07:00

The idea of going to the F1 Silverstone was exciting and thrilling. All four were racing towards to the Silverstone track in the rented car. Even after receiving a couple of speeding tickets’, the enthusiasm of seeing the racing track just increased the speeds again. We reached the Silverstone tracks to find the British car rally going on. The cars are raced non stop for a period of 24 hrs. We persuaded the guards to let us in for free. We were allowed to go in till the fence from where we could see the cars speeding emitting sparks and fire. We were just awestruck seeing the speeds of the cars. we watched the fast cars for about half an hour and capturing the cars in the cameras went futile due to the high speeds of the cars.
We left the place but still the whirring sound of the cars were still lingering in our ears.

Visiting the oldest windmill in Bedford.

2007-10-22T12:53:00.001-07:00

On a lazy Sunday afternoon the engines of the car roared and the music was pumped high in the car and two guys Rahul and Sunil hopped into the car and Ayoob the driver of the car stepped on the gas to speed away from 24 Williamson. We had pinky, our trusted GPS who was directing us towards the windmill. Soon we hit the country roads and our pinky was confused about the directions and began to go crazy. So we shut her off and started to look out for the directions on the sign boards. The windmill was standing tall guarding a field. We reached the foot of the windmill to learn that the key to the ancient windmill lies in pub nearby. So we rushed to that pub and took the key along after depositing a security amount. We couldn’t wait to open the old doors or the windmill and it was so intriguing. We finally managed to open the doors and get in. it was dark and spooky inside. The mechanics of the windmill were all open inside. We felt that history was again open to us after a long period of hiding in darkness. We sat outside the windmill for a long time till all the blues of the past week were swept away by the cold breeze. We all felt happy and fulfilling to visit such a monument which still stood to tell the story of time.

Software Piracy - The pirates of the software

2007-10-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

This was one of my very first writings. It was in the year 2000. You can see a copy of the original manuscript.

Stopping software piracy is just imposing a ban on a boon. It is just like pouring cold water on a burning fire and let it smoke. Pirating a SW is one of the best things one can imagine. It is obviously one of the best talents one can develop. Pirating a SW is no child's play. It takes to rattle ones brain and spend much time to do it.
So! Are pirates(SW hackers and crackers) greater than the SW developers. One cannot give a correct answer to this question and the ideas differ from person to person. Unknowingly we owe much more thanks to those people who made the softwares available to the common man. A commonly used operating system (Windows) or Microsoft Office would cost 3 to 4 months salary of an average Indian and some high end softwares like Auto Cad would cost a whole years salary. Will one go and purchase these softwares and live with these highly branded genuine softwares and go on with nothing else. One needs to be foolish to buy a SW when he can get it for free. If there was no SW piracy and one had to buy the SW, shedding even the last pence left in the pocket, none except the exceedingly rich and the ones who made the SW would use it. Nor would you and me have to do anything with these computers.

Nations like India, who are campaigning against the SW piracy should not forget that, all the Indians who brought fame to this country as a great software nation. Even the budding SW talents can dream of standing on the top of the rest of nations. Never forget that all this name and fame to our nation became possible only because of piracy. If this piracy was not present the present situation would be really different. Computers would be confined to corporates and with in the doors of the rich. The SW developing companies are callous and do nothing to improve the life of a common man but just go on making more and more money(Don't forget Bill Gates). But pirates on the other hand think nothing but how to help a common man and make him to enjoy the softwares. With out them probably you wouldn't read this(think twice). Before the release of the Windows XP, it was said that it cannot be pirated as the earlier versions of the windows were as it had such features against piracy. People wondered whether if they could ever lay their hands on that much hyped version. It was a talk among the people. But soon after the release of Windows XP that talk subsided abruptly and soon that XP was on every ones dream machine.
How all this happened? All the thanks and credit goes to the one and only Pirates. No one forgets the man behind the windows, Mr. Bill Gates when the windows logo appears or use Office, but none remembers the ones who made all that happen to them, the pirates who also did much hard work to bring that to you.
So when u see the wonderful desktop of your computer, or use the tools of MS Office, just say a word of thanks to the great people behind it who gave it away all for free and much more are yet to come from them. Or you are free to use the funny Red hat Penguin(LINUX) which comes for free. It is free, only because it is made by many people around the world who wanted every ones ideas to be incorporated and implemented. As the proverb says 'too many cooks spoil the broth', the Linux is a spoiled one and even smells stinky. Remember genuinely free things have these special qualities.
Linux is gaining popularity only because it can run on low system resources. Have you ever dreamt of using any other OS than windows. How can you ever forget the very commonly used MS Office that conquered the hearts and computers of many.

Men and Women in Black

2007-10-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

One fine morning, all the Infy rockers turned in to the office in Black T shirts. Even though it was never planned, surprisingly every one was wearing blue denim too. Though we were a much noticed group in the Infosys Mysore campus, but we were particularly being noticed that day. The similar black T shirts was the secret.
This group of fun lovers had the greatest fun at all times. We managed to have a laugh and a cup of coffee together even if the work pressure was sky high. The only girl in the male dominated group was Divya. She had many avatars and ‘Jhansi ki rani’ was just one of them. We had different nick names and posts in the fun filled group. The laughter king and the style guru, Avinash was the Sultan of the group as well as Mysore. The other rib-tickling person in the group was Sugand, also known as ‘gundan’ and mostly the ‘Senapathi’ to the ‘Sultan’. Drinking vodka daily was the only aspiration he had in his life. Then comes the ‘commander’ Srikanth. He was given this name and post because of his athletic looks and his stoical approach towards life. The next amusing person who is good in mimicking others is the ‘captian’ Skaria and is often called ‘saala skaria’. This person has a solution to all the love problems. The last one in the group is sunil who is also known as ‘karadi’. This is just an introduction to the wonderful group.

The inseparables often had a wonderful times including late night dinners at the highway dhaba. The rides on the highway in the heart of the nights were awesome and will never be forgotten by anyone who has taken these rides with the group. The group always had a million reasons to celebrate or to have a treat. These often ended by Diyva jumping the gates of the house at night. The group was often seen on CBZ motor bikes they owned.
Days progressed and times changed and the group had to part and move to different locations. Even when we are miles apart from each other, we never forget to mail or scrap each other and remember the wonderful times we had.

Visiting Manchester

2007-10-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

I was really excited to visit my dear cousin who lives in Manchester. The thought of that visit made me wake up early in the morning and was ready by time that I mostly be on bed on any other day. I packed up my bag and wore a jacket to protect me from the chilling cold and walked toward the rail station. The train was perfect on time and as it halted the doors were opened and I hopped into the nearest compartment. It was a Virgin pendolino train. The nice seats and the cozy ambience inside never let one feel the speed of the fast moving train. In an hour and a half I reached the Manchester Piccadilly rail station. It was a huge construction and I was wandering to check out some new places inside the station. As per the instructions given by my cousin, I took the tram by going a level below the rail station. In less than half an hour, I was reaching Eccles, the final stop for the tram service. It was my very first experience on a tram and I felt that it’s really comical for a tram to run on rails on the same road as other buses and cars. I got down at the tram station and called my cousin on his mobile and his attempt to scare me by telling that I reached the wrong place which was miles away from the actual destination was a compete failure as I already saw him coming toward me taking with me on his mobile from the other side of the road. We were happy to see each other and soon he did some shopping his own style and drove home.
We reached the Salford Royal Hospital and entered the doctors’ residential area. We reached the third floor and opened the door to find the house in a complete mess and which of course never surprised me. He was packing his belongings to move to Northern Ireland and the house was filled with huge carton boxes. I soon made one of the boxes into a seat and we started talking. He also showed me lots of photos including his marriage pictures. Then it flashed to my mind that he was married and there was no change in him. He was still the same old fun loving person whom I knew years ago.
That evening we were on a drive across the city and also visited the Old Trafford shopping centre. During the drives, I noticed this speed loving person who used to be on a rampage on the roads in Kerala was driving very cautiously. It was later known that a recent speeding ticket is the reason behind this careful driving.
That night we watched a few movies and slept late. As usual I woke up late only to find my bro missing. He was a kind of person who wakes up early in the mornings. Later it was found that he went to the hospital for some work and I still wonder that a lot of things happen around me when I am still sleeping. We had a quick breakfast and were back on the roads. We went to an Indian restaurant and had some wonderful food. Parking was a big trouble and we had to circle around that place for an hour to find a parking place before we got into that restaurant.
That evening, he dropped me back to the rail station and I was again alone in the city of Manchester. I had to wait for some time till the train started. The train dropped me back at the central Milton Keynes station and in a few moments I was in my house.
The tired body soon caught good sleep only to wake up on the Monday morning and to be back to work.

Surprised by the Shape

2007-10-07T08:36:00.001-07:00

There is no dearth of restaurants serving Indian foods in the United Kingdom. But the authentic Indain tastes and variety is still missing in all of them.
Every person who is either born or brought up in India can never mistake a samosa for a sausage. The weird was still waiting to happen at the La Hind in the CMK. Happy party goes orders for a spicy Indian samosa and were waiting impatiently at the table with their mouths filled with water. Soon a place filled with round wrapped stuff arrived on to the table along with other dishes and still the samosa was yet to arrive. Even after waiting for a considerable amount of time, there was not sign of the samosa coming. We already started eating and in the process also consumed the round wrappings that seemed to be sausages. We called the waiter and informed him that a plate of Indian Samosas were also ordered along with the other dishes. He browsed through some small papers in his hand and announces that the Samosas arrived long ago on to the table. We all unmistakably felt that this person was wrong and either he was confused with the orders or trying to fox us as the distinct shape of the samosa was well known to everyone who had either seen or ate a samosa. He was stern on his words that the Samosas were placed on the table and we ate them all. There was a surprised look on everyone’s faces at the table and Abhishek, the belligerent among us wouldn’t let this happen to us. He soon sprang out of his seat and rushed towards the waiter. After a couple of words and heated argument, it was resolved and the persons to be blamed for this scuffle were us. How mean and un logical it was to blame us? The plate of dish that seemed to be sausage was ruled out to be the Indian samosa.
Look out for yourselves, the new avatar of Indian samosa. Thus, on that day we all learnt a new lesson that Samosas not only come in different sizes, but also in different shapes.

In a House of Chefs

2007-10-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

You will never have to worry about having good tasty food when you live with good cooks who rule the kitchen. My apprehensions of having tasty Indian food vanished after eating the wonderfully cooked food and dishes by Saritha and Sharath. Both of them are terrifically adept in cooking and the need to enter the kitchen arises only then absence of these chefs. The assistant chef Rahul is fast gaining the skill and knowledge to use the kitchen knives and stoves, under the watchful supervision the experienced cook Sharath, and Vijaya under Saritha. Rahul's cooking has fastly improved from 'awful' to 'awesome'. Though he does not cook a variety of dishes, dal and rajmah remains his all time favorite. Sharath, the experienced man in the kitchen never hesitates to experiment with food stuffs and always ends up in creating a masterpiece dish. Saritha always sticks to the cook book rules and churns out the best dishes early in the day and nights too. The strong taste of chilies and an aroma of spices remind you of the wonderful Andhra cuisine. This often makes Sharath and others run for a cup of cold water while eating. The presence of various colors of chilies and hot stuff is an eminent style in her cooking. Shruthy, who cooks delicious food in the south Indian style often, blends the bests of the modern Indian and traditional Kerala styles of cooking. Coconut in various forms is eminently visible in all the food stuffs that she prepares.
This is all about the four good cooks in the Williamson Castle and the fifth person in the house has no choice except to take over the chores that arises after the battle of the kitchen has calmed down.

Pile of stones in a wonder world

2007-09-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

Every one was all excited to go out on a weekend. On that particular day, 5 friends who never used to be out of their beds before 9'0 clock, were all ready and set to go for a ride by 8'o clock. We started our car, loaded with numerous maps and food stuffs to eat. As the engine roared, our day started and we looked out for lots of fun to come our way.
I have never heard of any one who never lost his way even with all the huge sign boards and other navigational gadgets in the United Kingdom. Though we lost our ways on the highways and other country roads, we were on our way to the historical place, the Stonehenge.
Our first stop was at a small cafe, where the hot English tea lifted our spirits. soon we were on our way. we visited the Flying museum and saw all the flying machines that roared the skies in the world wars. The Stonehenge was visible from a few miles away. it was located on an elevated patch of land. the land was all green and we shelled out a few pounds and went inside the barricades, near to the stones. The picture which i had seen only on the windows XP desktop was now visible before my very eyes. it was a wonderful feeling that was felt by everyone who visited this place.
soon all the cameras were clicking and everyone was striking a different pose before the cameras.
After leaving that site of historical importance, we felt the real pain of the loss of money. It was just a pile of stones and lots of stories on the stones. I would have never spent a penny to visit such a site any where else in the world, but this, I was forced to visit.
The next stop was at the 'Old Sarum'. it was a real scenic place with plain green land all around. the game of football made us exhausted. The old fort, the treasury and the other remains of the wonderful place was a truly awesome sight.
We had our dinner at 'Salisbury' and we started our journey back.

Minimise this window and you can see the wonderful stonehenge on you desktop. Hope you don't mind us missing in the pic.

Flying with the British Airways

2007-09-02T03:04:00.000-07:00

After flying in the low cost carriers in India, boarding the British Airways was a welcome break. That was my first flight out of my motherland. After a weary travel from Mysore to Bangalore international airport, i found some time to take some rest and chat with my dear old friend, JD kutta. The check in of my baggage relieved me of 120 pounds even before I set my foot on Britain.
After a sleepless night and waiting at the airport, the sweet voice 'Welcome to the British Airways' buoyed my spirits. The smartly dressed pilot showed me the way to my seat. And soon i was taxying out of my country and in a few moments i reached an altitude of 36,000 ft, the highest point that i have ever been in my life thus far.
After a couple of drinks, cold and hot food stuffs, 2 movies and a senseless sleep, i was descending on to the land of the English. I was peeping out of the window and the sight outside did not make me glad. It was not the same place i dreamt of, instead it was the same as the place I came from.
Anyways, i was happy to be there, i called up the taxi and was on my way to my friends place in a Mercedes Benz. After an hour of drive, i was standing on the door steps of my friend Sharath's house. I had to wait on the doorway till a beautiful Russian gal opened the door for me and offered me some coffee in her kitchen.