29th Bday blast

Memorable Birthday
Its been a while since i blogged and i just got the right topic to blog. It is my bday today (27/12) and it was filled with surprises. All of a sudden am left wondering if the word 'surprise' describes the intense emotional state that i was in today.

Thanks to my fiance and friends they just made my day. I had an wonderful bday celebration to remember by and it was the most fulfilling day in my whole life.

Me and my fiance had planned the day well in advance when my father called up in the last moment asking me to travel to kancheepuram temple in the morning around 6'o clock, which is 1.5 hrs from chennai. We had to revise our plans accordingly. Am an evening person and waking up early kind of ruins my day. So had to cut down on treat with friends and stick to the plans that me and my fiance earlier had.

Lack of sleep left me tired and thought of sleeping in the car on the way return. To my surprise i got calls every now and then from friends wishing me for my bday. I was kind of surprised how most of my friends remembered my bday. It has been an usual thing for ppl to forget my bday and i was used to it. With all the wishes and request for treat i was already confused as to how i could fit in treats today. Thought i will check with my fiance about her plans before confirming other treat. To my surprise she had replied that guests had arrived in the morning and she wont be able to go out until 2:00 pm. As i was tired and since she wasnt ready  i just wanted to doze for a while.

Anand had just asked for a treat at fisherman's cove the previous day thought i will atleast go out for lunch with him to start my celebration. Called him up and asked him to buzz once he gets ready thought i would doze off till then when another surprise was awaiting when my mother called up my to-be inlaws and invited them for dinner. Since the whole plan that i had had collapsed i was hoping atleast i could go out with Anand for good lunch. He had initially said her sister & his mom would join for the lunch. Then he too changed the plan said they had left to pondicherry to attend another family function.

With no time to sleep and all my plans ruined i made up my mind for lunch with Anand and dinner at home and end my day thinking i could sleep after the lunch.

Atlast i got a call he said he was ready so i got ready and went to his house. His sister & cousin sister also joined the treat. I was their target for ragging through-out the drive. It was fun but i was too hungry to concentrate on their bullying hunger was my top priority. I was rushing through the traffic since others in the car were feeling hungry inspite of their ragging. There was an commotion when Anand's sis got an sms after which all of them started talking about changing the destination, stopping by nursery, stopping for a leak. I was perplexed as to why there is sudden introduction of delay for lunch.

After all the hungama we were all back in the car ready to hit the hotel. We went to hotel and it was crowded and it took time for the valet to attend my car. Had to wait for another 10 mins and we went in having been to this place i was fixed to this restaurant named 'Upper deck' on the way to 'Upper deck' Anand stopped me by to show an sign board

It said 'Balaji's Birthday party at Machaan'. My mind was so clouded that even after reading the sign board  i couldnt recognize it was my name on the sign board (I didnt realise it was me, what a bummer). I said  Anand looks like someone with the same name is celebrating his bday party here lets go to 'Upper deck' and turned around when Anand pulled my hand and said 'No, lets go here' thats when i turned around to see the ppl inside and to my surprise/shock i saw one of my friend named Vinod. I fixed my eyes on him so much so that i couldnt realise the whole room was filled with ppl i knew. Vinod was supposed to be in someplace outside India and i kind of had a mixed feeling if this guy is really Vinod, when i was about to convince myself that he might not be he was smiling at me by this time i had entered the restaurant and i was totally taken aback.

Oh my god!!! There were my college friends, school friends & colleagues and to top it all my fiance. What else can one ask for during one's bday (best friends + party + surprise = deadly combination). It was absolute bliss. Phew, i was trying to take a deep breath let the moments sink in. Did someone shout SURPRISE it would have helped a little. I guess no one did or have i gone deaf. I was looking at the guests i was looking at her eyes 'Did you do this? Did you arrange all this?' I wanted to hug her and whisper 'Thank you sweet heart' but not sure how others would react i just held her hands in acknowledgement.

It did take a while for me to digest the surprise element something i had been secretly longing for all these years. Realized i went numb for a while by seeing all my friends at once gathered around just to celebrate my bday party i quickly retracted and started saying 'hello' to all my friends proceeded by a brief introduction of my fiance with each one of my friends.

We had a good lunch and since it was totally unplanned we really were left out of ideas after the introduction. There were few conversations going on but it was all set apart. Spl thanks Anand & co, Shri & co for being the binding factor between groups. Anand's sister came up with this idea of cricket/volley ball and Akshay wanted to fly kite so we collected Cricket kit from the hotel authorities and started having fun again in groups. Few ppl flew kites, few ppl played cricket, few ppl were fiddling with frisbees when her highness came up with this idea of ladies joining the cricket game that did spark something and all of a sudden all of us were in to this game.

It was a short game with 6 overs with lots of fun. Thanks to the scorers none of the score that was reported today was true. It went on for around an hr or so and in the end there was a big fight to choose the winning team. It was a good show we went back to the restaurant to refresh ourselves. Coffee & cookies were served we all had a lite snack and bid good bye.

I think this is one day i would cherish for my life time. When the whole world was about to collapse, like a phoenix it bloomed in to fun-filled, fulfilling day of my life.

Thanks a lot sweet heart it was an incredible bday. I had a blast of joy. Hope we remain the same ;) (touch wood or gold :D)

Thanks to all my friends who coordinated with my fiance to make this an rememberable moment. Hope you guys had fun too :-)

Chk back to view snap shots of the party later.

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Dormant blogging

Me being a dormant blogger had to come up with a convincing reason to convince myself & others as to why one wouldnt blog :D. Think before you leap, so I wondered how people manage to blog about their life regularly. But the act of formalizing life events in words is interesting & challenging. As any other activity this too hits crest & trough there are times when there is so much to write and times when life is so dull and there is nothing to write. And i dont blog when it hits crest (as it is now) or trough. Its the art that one has to develop over time by continuous reading & blogging.

Life has never been the same since July 28 and there has been a lot of changes in me. So many things happened in such short time i just could'nt imagine it really happened.

Am happy i inspired two of my friends to start blogging. One is an Aries female 25 years of age who likes to devise her own life plans http://macherjournal.blogspot.com/. This blog of hers is my personal favorite http://macherjournal.blogspot.com/2009/08/this-something-i-wrote-really-long-back.html for one obvious reason.

Another friend of mine Leo female who has the best job in the world currently (bringing up her child :-) ). Her first blog is just about that http://blogdaily-nandhini.blogspot.com/2009/10/for-long-time-now-i-have-been-thinking.html

Not sure if i was their true inspiration but i know they didnt blog earlier and started blogging after my initiative. So i assumed :P

Am glad Revs opened her blog for public again. I derive inspiration from Revs (http://revsrules.blogspot.com) & Anand (http://anandnataraj.com)

unhappy weekend :(

Last three days have been a test to my temperament and the experience left me in sad state. I normally try to be prepared to such unexpected situations but continuous failure left me in belligerent mood. I got an email forward this friday which quotes 'you can always manipulate your mind to react normally during bad situations' and one hint was to concentrate on breathing whenever you feel angry, breathing cycle is connected to the brain and whenever a person is angry their breathing becomes shallow as a result in outburst of anger. We were looking forward for this movie Quick Gun Murugan which is a spoof of old tamil movie for a while and Anand managed to book tickets for the movie 3 days earlier at Satyam. 

This weekend unlike any other was well planned. I had to finish my job early, workout in gym and enjoy the movie on Friday. Rest on Saturday and do a bit of shopping, gymming. Travel to trichy to attend Rams wedding on Sunday and return back the next day. 

On friday i did manage to finish the job on time and was amazed to see less traffic on my way back home. Reached home early and called Anand twice and no answer. Knowing him well i guessed it rite that this bum must be sleeping. So had to stop by his home to wake him up but he wanted to sleep. Went to gym alone was happy to see less crowd quickly finished my stretching and exercises and was rushing back home so that we could go have dinner outside and enjoy the movie. Guess my luck had changed at this point after my return from Gym. Quickly refreshed and went back to pick up Anand for the movie and saw him asleep. Was planning to have something good for dinner and  this time i got annoyed when he said the movie is at 10:30 what are we going to do starting at 9:00. It was a shocking statement usually he is the one who wants to explore places rather than going on planned visits. 

After a late start we went to this hotel in Saidapet named Mount Palace where the waiter fuelled my  temper by delaying not the dish we ordered but notifying us about the unavailability of the dish. He had the knack of posing so many questions as to how you would want to the food to be. And i eagerly wait for the dish to be prepared and he returns back after 5 mins just to say that the dish is not available. He repeated this thrice and i got totally pissed off and wanted to walk out. Anand convinced me that it would only delay our movie schedule so had to stay back without much hope as to when or whether we would receive our dishes. I had ordered chicken biriyani which is the most common dish and doesnt take much time as it is kept prepared. And for some reason it was delivered late too. 

After this short stint with the waiter we headed to Satyam annexe parking where we usually park we reached the spot by around 10:25 and to our surprise it was full. First time since the annexe was open we managed to see it full had to return to usual parking lot which is usually less effective. The guys have 3 gates but they let the traffic through one gate which causes bottleneck. I was suggesting Anand why cant they individual gates for each theatre so that they can avoid the bottleneck. There was a prompt reply from him 'That too will not solve the problem dude what if people enter in wrong gates' which kindled my anger even more as i wasnt expecting a deterring comment. Phew i just wanted to vent my frustrations and his comment left me in worse state. I managed to control my emotions and asked him to get the tickets so that by the time i get to park we will have the tickets ready. But for some reason he ignored that and i wasnt happy and was not in a mood to repeat it. 

Finally we got inside the theatre and Anand tried to convince me that there is no reason for me to be angry. That was totally out of line, i had to reply back strongly that there is all the reason for me to be angry and just want to express it freely. Sorry for that bro but your comments were sharp and wasnt helping me. After that he realised that i was indeed in a bad mood and tried to cheer me up through out the movie. Though i didnt like the movie few scenes in the movie were hilarious. Anand totally enjoyed the movie was laughing throughout the movie and was cheering me up. 

Next day we went to couple of cafe 36 degrees and Amethyst. It was my first time to both these places but my bad luck with the waiter continued. Had to repeat the order again and again as the waiter was leaving out one or couple of items whenever we order. At that moment i said to myself and to Anand & others that i am not going to order for now. Anand pitched in again trying to convince that i have to fight against this so-called fate. There was a kids bday party going on in 36 degrees and there were kids playing all around and fortunately that helped shape my mood. We left to Amethyst unplanned as soon as we enter there was a car standing in parking entrance, being our first time we thought the parking was full and parked my car outside on the road. When we returned to my frustration the car had left and the parking lot had enough space to accomodate atleast 10 cars. Went back again to get my car and park it inside the parking lot. Went inside with a bad mood quickly browsed through the menu and said i want to have Vanilla cappucino and left to the restroom. Came back and was eagerly waiting for the coffee and trying to admire the place. I have visited few countries outside India and have always felt there is no cafe or pub to match one that i have been to outside India. This cafe was totally different and it matched all my expectations. Before losing myself in awe i asked Anand 'so what did you guys order for yourself' and he replied back 'What! we are yet to order, we were waiting for you'. Phew! thats exactly when i had to give up. 

There were few other bad experiences on my way back home. Lets see if things get better when i go to Trichy tommorow.

Phew!!! what an bitter weekend so far...

Origin of SMS short forms

This is an interesting conversation i had with one of my close buddy who used to trouble me by sending SMS in short forms and i had trouble reading it and making sense out of it. She came up with a real good explanation about the origination of short forms in SMS today.

It all started back in their college days it seems where people used to SMS like crazy and all service providers were offering nice offers with free SMS. One fine day they decide to cut short on the free SMS for whatever reason and these ppl who have been SMS-ing for long went crazy & couldnt change their behavior as it had become their habit by now. Looks like if an SMS crosses certain characters will be regarded as second SMS (this was news for me). So they came up with all short forms to avoid the second SMS.

And another obvious reason would have been to make it easier to type messages since the phone doesnt come with QWERTY keyboard installed.

Kandasamy Review

I always wanted to watch first day first show of a movie and it has never happened so far. But i was able to make it to the first day last show of the movie Kandasamy. If i remember correctly this movie has been in the making close to 3 years and there has been lot of speculation & expectation about this movie. I was assuming that it will similar to the super hero movie of Hrithik Roshan 'Krish' and am glad it had no links with that movie. Its not even a super hero movie the film crew did a good job not revealing the story and it paid off well. On the overall it was a job well done. Each scene in the movie was well thought through and executed. The storyline is a blend of Anniyan & Sivaji where the hero fights against lies, deceit, corruption etc. trying to bridge the gap between the rich and poor. And they have nicely portrayed the need for helping the poor.

Vikram makes an move like rooster during his stunt with Mansur ali khan that was my favorite scene in the movie. It really shows how much effort this actor or the team has put in to observe the moves of a rooster and imitate it.

Back to my discussion with Mr.Anand about the movie. He too liked the movie and he prefered the second part better since there were too many parallel threads in the beginning. Any movie or story the first quarter will be character introduction followed by the plot and climax in the final quarter. That was my explanation for his parallel thread-phobia.As usual we were discussing about the movie and its after effects if someone like Kandasamy did exist in real life. There is a scene in the movie where Charlie wishes to have someone as beautiful as Aishwarya to dance & entertain his gang while he is boozing. And Kandasamy dressed like a lady and beats the hell out of them to arouse fear so that no one else will wish something like that again. This is exactly we think. One of the interesting topic during discussion was based exactly on this producing a spoof movie of Kandasamy based on crazy things people wish for starting with a man below poverty line who cannot fund his own needs writes to Kandasamy wishing for food & shelter and how he will wish for all the wants in his life. Man Kandasamy will make people in our country lazy what the heck is this less-communism. Probably people making movies like this should think about creating more jobs with in the country and motivating people to work more to earn more. Create more awareness about educating their child, learning to think on a long term etc.Thats the only things that going to help on a long term.

Lost in drift towards North Chennai

Everytime we drift it has been different experience different topics each time. Most often we stick to the same route and lose ourselves in the conversation. But last friday it was a bit different i drove towards north of chennai a route both of them were unfamiliar with. But Anand was too much in to explaining his business plan and myself on the wheel trying to focus on both the business plan as well as the route. Oflate i have been miserable in remembering numbers, landmarks, routes. And it was more difficult for me to multitask while driving through unfamiliar route and trying to keep up with the conversation.

We were driving after watching 'Love aaj kal' not a great movie. I didnt understand why there wanted to show two parallel love stories happening during different times probably a decade after another. It even doesnt make sense when the old Rishi Kapoor looks like Saif during his early age when they literally have nothing in common. Anyways no one can predict on what basis a movie hits box office.

The trail started of from Satyam cinemas through nungambakkam, kellys, aynavaram perambur, icf and thats were we lost trail. There was a junction in perambur and we were exploring 3 of 4 roads in each direction and we got lost exploring the road in the 4th direction. From there it was all new hope it was mostly perambur, otteri, vyasarpadi all new places were we havent been. Luckily for us we had few passers by and we came across 2 police checkpost where we stopped by for directions and finally were able to make it to the same junction. At that moment i was dreaming about owning a GPS or atleast a phone that has a phone that has GPS in it. And Anand said dude all you would need is a magnetic compass and we can always track our way back. It sounded like a cheaper solution.

So i was googling about magnetic compasses the next day i was too deep into an article and realised after finishing it that it was explaining more about navigation during older days and the invent of magnetic compass rather than 'how to' use it to navigate. Guess staying awake during nites is making my mind cloudy.

Neighbors Envy Owners Pride

July 31 2009

Anand & Myself were planning to go for this movie 'Luck' starring Shruti Hasan for almost a week. But for some reason we end up watching some other movie or going on long drive. July 31st was one such day we planned to do a few things after i came back from office (for those who are wondering what Anand is doing, he is an serial-entrepreuner looking forward to make his mark in business) 

1) Visit lifestyle and buy one Wallet - Anand's request

2) Watch Luck

3) Return IT-return forms to its auditor

and it was raining heavily when i got this reminder SMS from one of my friend about Raeesa's First Birthday. This event totally slipped my mind so we had to alter our plans. Anand went to visit his auditor and submit the IT-returns and i went on to attend the bday party so that we can still make it to the movie.

But it turned out differently the party was overflowing with kids and two of my friends hosted the party with fun events. Had to spend time at the party more than expected. Returned back from party around 10:15 pm. Was too late for the  movie with one task pending we had to visit one of Anand's Friend's house related to IT returns and back on track for our drift nite. We are talking about which trail we should probably take and decided on a usual route when we passed Velachery almost at the same time we thought of exploring Velachery. So it was an exploration of a new trail passing through Velachery, passing 2 tolls in OMR and a 3rd one to connect ECR toward Mahabalipuram. 1 stop in the connecting road from Kelambakkam to Kovalam to watch the lightning connect the sky & the earth. The connecting road was surrounded by back waters from sea for collecting Salt deposits. With no building near by the place was calm, peaceful and we had to stay in the car as it was still raining watching lightning strike earth. We were blaming ourselves for not bringing the Camera. If you are in Chennai and if its raining this is one good view of Mother Nature you dont want to miss.

Another surprise was collecting new 10Re Coin as change in the 2nd toll. They have newly introduced this 10Re coin  and many of them dont even know that it exists. Now we are proud owner of 10Re coin. Visit Anand's blog to geta glimpse of 10Re coin (www.anananataraj.com).

And then we drove ahead towards Mahabs this is not the first time am visiting this place. Its my mother's home town so i go there for every annual leave during my school days. It was even my first school trip in 5th std and this guy was my classmate, friend since then. This place is known for its heritage stone carvings, shore temple, light house. It lies in the coast of Bay of Bengal and was an established sea port of the Pallava dynasty (http://www.mahabalipuram.co.in/). I have visited this place all through my childhood and have seen it modernize with the civilization. Though they have spent effort & money to  preserve stone carvings, temples it looks brand new to me. I no more get the feeling of visiting an heritage when i visit Mahabalipuram. Probably am expecting the world to be the same so i could relish my childhood memories.

Total cost of the trip = 2 return tolls on OMR 60Rs + 45 on ECR 

Drift in Maya (a.k.a maayandi :P)

What a nite it was July the 28th 2009. We went on a drift totally unplanned, was watching some movie probably browsing through the channels when the mood to drift struck. It was a beautiful nite and it was all hush-hush, none of our parents knew our absence. Its always nice to have a mate who talks, thinks in the same wavelength and takes you on a long drive too when you feel like going on one :-). 

It was all unsure after i called Anand for a drive and he said he would call back once he gets ready. It was about 15-20 mins and i was skeptical and there was a call from Anand to check my pulse for a drive, 'cos of burger boy he started barking after hearing him leave the house so he had to stay back to make sure his parents dont wake up. Having pets could be disadvantageous sometimes. But somehow he made it  after 30mins i was one happy man set to explore beautiful drizzling nite. You dont get that often esp in Chennai.

Went to airport had a nice hot coffee. Anand had sore throat we normally go for cold coffee, as a friendly gesture i had to give him company. Fortunately the coffee was too good and then we started our drift in a more energetic mood. Having no topics in mind we started with some arbit chatter. I had to quickly comeup with a good topic to deviate the discussion, i couldnt believe this guy was trying to explain me his family relationship link to his second cousin and he wouldnt leave me until i get the link rite. 

And i started explaining this idea of owning an house far away from our parents restrictions. We watch lot of movies, play Wii, discuss about life, business, movies kill a lot of time like that.  Having an hideout like that felt like freedom for me. He joined me and started explaining about visiting his Bangalore home during weekends. Sounds like a plan to me.

We were discussing about IT industry in general how it evolved without any discipline. The industry is just bloated with people not knowing what their responsibilities are and the consequences of their actions or words, used to be a creative, well-respected domain but turned out to be one confused crowd nowadays. 

We used to pay 10Rs toll for the highway we take, its increased now to 30Rs. Unwilling to spend 30 Rs for using the highway for which we pay road tax too we took a detour in a gap made by local people in that area in the pavement landed in some place named Kovur. On the overall it was a exciting nite slight drizzle, hot coffee , problems to talk about, a new road, 30Rs in savings, came home safely and my parents were still asleep. Just couldnt ask for more.

Something Nothing

It takes a lot to blog these days...if i have something to share am too lazy to write it...when i have my system setup & logged in blogspot nothing strikes my mind. 

Something is better than Nothing :). 

Watched Modhi Vilayadu yesterday the twist after the interval took Anand & myself by surprise, we had anticipated two diff versions of the how the story will move forward and the director proved us both wrong. It was interesting to think what will happen if something like that happen in real life. First half of the movie was fun watching esp because of the gorgeous Kaajal, couple of cinematic twist after the interval and an usual kollywood ending. It was worth watching.

Missed my schedule to see Luck today. It was raining and i was sleepy so slept for a while. Awake now feeling lot fresh dont know what to do. Just called up Anand we are planning to drift. No topics to discuss its 11:47 On July 27 2009. But the feel of long drive in the midst of the nite after the rain. You got to experience it.

Let me see if i can blog my experience after the drift. 

First trek

Its been ages since i blogged though there were too many things happening i didnt take time off to ramble. There were too many things happening in my life and one of it was my first CTC trek last weekend. It was an amazing experience an horrible one too (being the first time). One of my junior, ex-colleague was part of the trek, it really doesnt help much 'cos you tend to talk less & preserve energy for the trek. 

CTC is a recently founded organisation started by a trek enthusiast named Peter Van Geit. Mother nature loves this guy you could see that when you trek with him. A man with great stamina, climbs cliffs, crosses water stream, literally runs on dry stream filled with rocks as if on a plain surface and he does this with 1/10 of water, food i had during my first trek :). 

Nagala 23 was my first trek was the first trail even for CTC. I never knew that until late afternoon the first day when we ran out of water standing on top of the second moutain under hot sun. It was meant to be a 2 day trek and i was in wait list of 34 ppl who registered for the trek. The response for the trek is just mind boggling they got around 50 registrations with in just 2 days. I got in the last minute 'cos i agreed to take my car. It was only a 2hr drive from Chennai and drove through pickup points in Guindy & Koyembedu. We were advised to carry 4 litres of water since we wont be able to find any water stream during the first half of the trek, sleeping mat, one pair of dress. Man i sure took it lightly or never knew how it feels when there is no water. We rushed through the first mountain with ease and being my first trek i was eager to see whats ahead of us. Peter kept advising us to go easy on the water and providing us status with his little GPS gadget he had on his hand. In his own rough accent  'Make sure you finish of 1 bottle every 3 hrs mate, we wont be hitting a water stream till late in the afternoon...' 

'We have been walking for 1:30 mins and stopped for 1:46 mins' -  It looked as if this guy was providing us false status we never stopped for 1:46 mins. But in reality we were making stops often finishing of water, glucose... It was not a pleasant view it was an usual hot day inside some not so lush forest, didnt come across a single animal during the whole trek. On top of the first mountain i was already down in energy they showed us the second mountain that we were about to climb it was half burnt due to forest fire i guess.  By then i had almost completed my 2nd bottle. Downhill was relatively easy how can one not appreciate gravity but i was dehydrating a lot so started with my 3rd bottle of water. When we hit the bottom i was already searching for the s0-called water stream. Peter was leading us and i managed to keep up with him till the first mountain. I wanted to rest before i start the second climb. So i decided to stay back wait for the rest of the ppl to join. Apple never tasted so good. ah, enjoyed the last bit of it. There i got in touch with a new guy with no energy to talk we just showed signs 'shall we start' i gave a nod and than asked for another 5 mins. There was a sweeper in our set who being an experienced trekker was uncomfortable in letting us go but after gaining energy after the rest and apple, we said we will follow the dry stream and wait if there is a fork and unable to find the way. So he decided to let us go and we moved up hill. According to the master (Peter) it was a 3km climb and then down hill we hit another dry stream and just 300m from there is the water stream. Wow the thought of water was appealing, whatever you gained in life so far doesnt matter at that moment. Actually nothing matters when it comes to survival of the fittest. Ego, Money any tangible, intangible asset that you have earned, learned doesnt matter.
Having  a fit body, ability to swim, anything that has got to do with the survival matters a lot. So we start climbing the second mountain i got tired more easily than the first one...but managed to keep up resting a min or so often. It was getting steeper & steeper if only we had water my thoughts would have been filled with fear. Slippery & no shade it was a horrible sight on top of the second mountain. There i was sitting in the blazing sun left with no choice other than to follow the lead to the water stream. By that time i had completed half of my 4th bottle. I was asked to wait till the next set comes over show them way, i disagreed. Not able to bear the sun, i had to move on. The sight was awe-inspiring, it was dense with dry plants, thorns and no ledges or grip at all. Not a good sight esp when there is no water or energy.  Half way down like a four legged beast couldnt bear the weight of my back pack anymore. It was heavier than it was during the start of the trek with 4lts of water. Now with less than 1/2 a litre it weighed a tonne. An idea suddenly clicked and instantly i removed my bag off my shoulders and threw it down the mountain and managed to slide down the hill. And there we reached the bottom of the second mountain and with no water i convinced myself that it was only 300m. But 300m at that moment felt like i was a light year away from the water stream. By that time i had lost my water bottle during my down-slide. The best thing about the CTC is 'no-litter' policy, we had to carry our trash back with us.

We managed to cross the 300m and hit the water stream and the sight of water fall was beautiful during sunset. It was around 6:30 when we reached the water fall, 3 hrs behind Peter. The master must have been disappointed  not able to extend the trek. So he decided to extend the Nagala 22 trek (all ladies trek).  There was another group with all ladies following another trail in Nagala which is supposed to be our exit trail. By the time we took a dip in the pool near the waterfall there was sight of few ladies. There was lot of activities around ppl cooking maggi, soup. Few other demonstrating their diving capabilities in the pool. I was too tired for all that took my share of maggi and went off to take care of my sprained ankle and then dozed off...

So much for the entry trail...let me see if i can manage to write about my exit trail which was fun-filled when compared to the entry, with ladies joining us and the rain it could never get better. 

Tired after working continuosly for weeks am on comp off for almost a week this week. We dont have much work this week but its good to take sometime off and relax a bit. 

With all this crisis its hard to see people losing  jobs. it keeps me wondering, what would have happened if there wasnt an IT boom ? what would have been the situation? all the people would be working in manufacturing, automobile, fmcg. As usual govt jobs would have been preferred. But it was IT due to which we had more money coming in, i cant think of people buying cars, house at an early age. 

On the brighter side, this is much needed correction. Looking at where we are, i think this is the time to realise that we better improve on every aspect of work that we do. Working in creative industry is like working with conflicts and often i feel we just dont handle them well. These conflicts,  most of the time affects the quality of work we do. Hope this correction helps us grow stronger, create new jobs, grow mature and help improve ourselves not only in the work we do but also as an good individuals.

Oflate i make sure i dont skip my gym routine and it kind of feels good when you set a target and acheive it. Thought 65 kg would suit me better, but i still feel i look the same, decided to increase it to 70 kgs. Problem with increasing weight is controlling your tummy and tummy exercises are pathetic.  

My movie watching has taken a back seat due to my work, now that am low on tasks i miss my buddy very much. He has always been a better company for any movie. if i call myself a movie buff he is buff square. Not sure if i can find someone else who can fill in his position. 

Two things to work on in the forthcoming days. Weight & finishing a novel Fourth K.

Buried in neck deep of work for almost a month didnt get a chance to do my routine tasks. My new year resolution first time resolution has taken a beating, though i managed to stick to one resolution, wearing formals to office. I prefer to be in jeans & t-shirt. Its interesting how ppl judge others just by their looks. 

Me with considerable amount of experience look too young to be leading a team. Ok, i understand that i look young for my age but what do i do for the manufacturing defect. When some ppl would be happy to stay young, it comes with its own side effects. Esp when you climb up the org ladder.   It takes lot of patience & time to wait for ppl to break their frame of reference and accept the fact that i look young and older than them too. I could imagine this happening in a manufacturing industry but definitely not in IT. 

IT - the place where i realised that ppl do value one's capability and age or years of experience doesnt really matter to grow up in the organisation. After all these years of being shut down with "unakkum onnum theriyadhu, nee innum chinna payyan". But things are changing in IT  nowadays too much of freedom comes with a cost. Ppl are allowed to stay natural just because its a creative industry and requires ppl to stay at work most of the time. But somehow IT culture doesnt gel well with our tamil culture. For many reasons, here are a few

1) In IT organisations ppl can be open in passing on comments about once ideas as to why it makes sense or not. And in our culture ppl are not allowed to pass such comments about elders. 

2) Fast paced world in terms of money, change in life style, habits everything, while we have process (tradition) setup for each and everything. This eventually leads to widening of generation gap.

3) In my organisation that i work we call ppl by names, it was weird for me to get used to it but i stretched the limits too far and called my maama by his name and he was not happy about that. Taking habits from work to home is a bit too much, i realised then. In IT we have many such habits derived from western culture. Most of the clients we interact are from western countries and when ppl work closely with them, they are sure to catch hold of their habits.

4) With all the hike and ppl in IT doing financially well its causing a stir amongst common ppl. And IT ppl just couldnt manage it well, they go off flashing their costly mobile phones, ipods, etc. No wonder auto drivers demand twice the fare when i carry a shoulder bag which kind of looks like a laptop bag.

Looks like we are trying to catchup with the rest of the world in all aspects a bit too fast and we are facing the upshots of our own opinions & strong beleifs of our ancestors. 

aah, my first blog for the year. Thanks to my friend who was checking out on my blog status.