Will it be an adventure?

Planning to go home this evening - there is some tension prevailing in the TN-Karnataka border and people form both the states have resorted to violence and they have been pelting stones on the buses that ply between both the states - hoping to reach home safely!!!

Back home

Prague trip was cut short and i had to return back to India four weeks ahead of schedule. Got a call from the Indian embassy on the 25th stating that my passport is ready and i could collect it... My travel desk was super efficient and they got the ticket booked for the next day at 6 AM. My colleagues in prague wanted to have a farewell party that night and i was in the pub till 1AM - rushed back to the apartment and finished packing by 3 AM - the cab was waiting for me and i rushed to the airport.

Landed in Bangalore at 2 AM on the 27th and had to wait for 1.5 hours to get the luggage (Am seriously waiting for the new airport to be operational - hopefully things should get better than but the distance from the city is scary!!!)...reached home at 4. There was a mandatory training scheduled that day and i was hoping to sleep through the training...unfortunately i walked in 10 mins late and the only place that was vacant was the one right below the trainers nose.

F1 2008 Australian GP

It was jus 5 months back that we saw the last race but it really seems like a decade has passed. Was really looking forward for the 2008 series to begin - the excitement factors being Alonso returning to Renault and India been represented in the big event by Kingfisher (Force india). Force india looked promising during the test drives at barcelona and spain - not that i expected them to finish in the top 3 but was hoping that they have a good start.

The first race was the australian grand prix - the race starting was good with hamilton taking off from the pole position but it was disappointing to see Force India's Fisichella getting knocked out in the first corner itself. It was not a good week for ferrari for sure - massa had a spin in the first lap and he lost a couple of positions. Raikkonen as usual exhibited his magnificent driving skills - he started 16th and by the mid of the race he was 3rd - he gave a tough time to Kovalainen but it was sheer bad luck when he was not able to control his car after overtaking Kovalainen - felt bad for him but this is F1 - a second loss of concentration can cause a lot of damage!!!

The race was action packed and only 7 cars completed the race. Hamilton's drive was almost unnoticed in the race (he built a lead and was way ahead) - McLaren really deserved a win here out at the Australian GP - would have been good if they had a one-two. It was nice to see BMW and Toyota on the podium. Though renault (Alonso) did not leave a big impact in the first race, they are sure to come back with a bang in the future races (Alonso started 12th and finished 4th and he did a brilliant job while overtaking ferrari and Mclaren)

A memorable race and a good way to start the 2008 GP - looking forward

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

Got this as a forward message - good one

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know one thing.
You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon,
at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch near the fire the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists, aromas, light, metals,
were little boats that sail toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now, if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly you forget me do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners that passes through my life,
and you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have roots,
remember that on that day, at that hour,
I shall lift my arms and my roots will set off to seek another land.

Face to face meet with a man i adore

It was way back in 2001 - i was in my final year of engineering and we had our department symposium "prodigy" scheduled in the month of February 02. It was the final year's responsibilty to conduct the event. we all debated as to who should be the chief guest for the event - we finally decided that it would be a great honour to have Dr.Abdul kalam preside over the event. At that point of time, he had retired from DRDO and he was a faculty at Anna university. So Jaggu and i took the responsibilty of going doen to Chennai to invite him for the symposium.

Little did we know at that point of time about the formality of fixing up an appointment before visiting - Jaggu and i landed up in Anna university and we directly went to his office. We managed to speak our way past the security and met his secretary. Dr.Kalam was not there in the office and we were asked to come back in the afternoon. When we returned in the afternoon, his secretary was not sure if we could meet him that day (we were to return back to trichy that night). We guys had almost given up all hope and were about to leave. All of a sudden, Dr.Abdul Kalam steps out of his room to say something to the secretary and he notices us sitting there. He asked the secretary as to who we were and as soon as he knew we were students from REC, he came down to us and spoke to us. He was a man down to earth and he listened to us patiently. He politely declined to preside over the function - we did not achieve our goal of getting him to REC but we were happy that we were able to shake hands with the undisputed leader of the indian misslie program who breather life into Agni And Prithvi :)

This is one memorable meeting which i would carry to my grave

ATM - Alltime Torture Movie

Decided to watch some movie over the net - the usual website tamilblood was not available - the next option was videodhuniya and there were two latest movies available - Azhagiya tamil mazhgan and Bheema. A few freiends told me earlier that bheema is not worth watching so decided to watch the "illaya thalapathi" in action.

ATM - Vijay gets introduced in his usual style with a competition followed by a song - this reminded me of Gilli and a number of other movies- when will he change this style!!! Shreya's introduction is another comedy where she feeds the ants and they have graphics to show the ant walking away with the food. The first half is filled with the usual concept of the guy and girl falling in love. The reason for Shreya to fall in love with vijay lacks creativity - well, they need a reason for the heroine to fall in love with the hero and voila - the director came up with that real stupid reason and the way she proposes to him - how dumb. They than start getting the approval of the parents - i started snoring by the time they got the green flag from one and all!!!

In the second half the second vijay makes an entry - he looks really cool in the introduction scene. The fake guy moves in and makes everyone - including the actual guys friends, lover and parents believe that he is the real guy - Excuse me - pls do not tell me that the actual guy has scripted his min to min biography in a diary and the fake guy just picks up everything and makes everyone believe it. The first half is really slow and the second half lacks logic in each and every scene (well - it is too much to expect logic from movies but still...). Shreya as usual looks good :)

Comedy track has also failed miserably in the movie. The real comedy in that movie was the climax - the way the bad guy jus realizes his mistakes and walks into namitha's hands- Heights!!!

Prague

Landed in prague on the 3rd afternoon - first thing that stuck me was the cold weather - It was 30 degree celsius at bangalore and at prague it was 3. Coming to prague office was like a home-coming - it was really nice to see the Prague colleagues after 4 months and there were a lot of stories to catch up on :)

Wait is finally Over

When i landed in India on the 1st of Feb, i was already looking forward to my next trip - not that i do not wnat to be in India but there were other reasons. I was planning to escape to Czech by the 10th of Feb but things did not work out as planned...the wait was long. Finally i got my visa yesterday and i am flying to prague on sunday.

This visit is going to be different for sure - whenever i travelled outside India, i had my colleagues there and weekends were fun to hang out with them. This time, i would be the only guy from HTS out there in Prague. I am all excited to find out as to how i am gonna spend my weekends all alone over the next two months - will be a different experience for sure.

Everything has a reason!!!

There are times when you feel the worst thing possible has happened to you but hold on friends - let the moment pass through and wait for some days. After a reasonable amount of time, sit back and look at the things that happened - you will for sure see somethings good even in the worst scenario.

I sailed through one such rough patch and at the end of it , when i look back, i am happy that it happened. It was a tough time for a short duration but for sure it saved me from a lot of things in the long run. It was a decision that i had taken in haste and now when i look at what i had done, i feel really stupid. In addition, the tough time helped me to understand somethings about my friends and more about my parents that i failed to notice for the last couple of years...

2 much funda for a day!!!

All in a days time!!!

Have you ever wanted a day just to end ? Have you ever waited for the clock to strike 12??? I did – it was the 18th of sept 07.

I was in Prague then and it was raining cats and dogs. I had to collect my passport from the embassy that day. I collected the passport and to ensure that it does not get wet, I kept my passport in the inner pouch of my laptop backpack. My cabbie was not ready to wait for me so I walked down to the metro station in the rain and took the metro to the office. Reached office and a friend of mine wanted to see the visa. Took out my passport and was shocked to see that the passport was fully wet – to my surprise there was not a single drop of water in any of the other pouches in the backpack other than the one in which I kept my passport L With no other option left, I dried my passport in the microwave

I had booked a gift for my friend through the net – the gift site had an option that said “Message to be delivered on card” – I thought that it was a greeting card and had left a personal message for my friend. The gift got delivered on the 18th and my friend was wild at me – reason- the gift company had posted an open card with my message. The security guard and the receptionist had read the message completely and had passed across the gift to my friend with a sly grin. Dumb me!!!

The day at office was really hectic – stopped a couple of issues from getting escalated at the last moment and I was more than happy at 9 PM to leave office. A friend of mine was there with me. I wanted to use the restroom so I asked him to wait in the lobby. I go to the restroom and when I try opening the door, it was locked. I tried all means to open the door but hard luck was smiling at me that day. I called my friend on his mobile and asked him to get the security. The security did not speak English so my friend had a hard time making him understand that I was locked in the restroom – finally he managed to get the security to the restroom with the keys and I was released after 30 mins. The office is usually deserted after 8 PM but on that day when I came out, there were a dozen guys staying around and looking at me as if I was a dino walking out from Jurassic park…

Man…was I happy that the day ended!!!