Finally, I could make it

And at last, I could. After all the hide and seek which project dates play and with a whole lot of other drama, this time I was lucky enough to NOT miss the wedding of a dear friend of mine - Kavnish. Though, the stars tried their best to clash my project dates with Kavnish’s wedding, but ultimately things settled in such a way that I had to leave for Australia on Saturday and Kavnish’s wedding was on the previous Tuesday. Damn! Yet so close! I have already missed the wedding of two of my great friends by a margin of 1 day. On Both occasions I was travelling abroad for official assignments. This time I was in Bangalore but Kavnish was getting married in Delhi, that too on a weekday. In my company, when you are on a project, you don’t get leaves. Still I tried and thankfully managed to convince my bosses that they let me travel to Delhi, as I would continue working from home or Gurgaon office, not letting the work getting affected and also I’ll be able to attend the all so important marriage. Thanks Boss that you agreed and I could make it to the wedding.
Kavnish was one of the coolest guys on that Ghode waala rath and also on stage. We all know of the stud boys who during their wedding night feel that it’s a life time achievement to get married and how much proud their forefathers must be, and that now after this success no one else around is worth a look, let aside words… and they just pose for the camera, most of the times looking at the skyline and not even smiling when u look at them… as if u r an un-invited guest. Hello dude! You were the one who sent me the invitation, I dint come on my own! Anyways. I don’t care for them either. Kavinsh was nothing like that. He was very comfortable and cool-ly talking to other people. He was all smiley and maaroing gappe with us even when he was on that Vijay rath. I like that.
The funniest thing is that these days they make the Dulha and Dulhan stand on a rotating platform at the time of Varmala, so that everyone can see the couple and then the machine showers flower petals on them. Imagine how stupid one would feel presenting garlands, 15 ft above the ground on a rotating platform with 1000 people looking as if the duldha is going to pick the girl and run away from the ceremony!!! Such rotating platforms were last seen in some Rishi Kapoor’s song.
The couple looked good, the food was good. We spend the whole night sitting in Kavnish’s fere. About being interested in fere; even Kavnish wasn’t. He was too sleepy to enjoy the thing. But I thoroughly enjoyed the entire marriage because I met so many friends and I get to dance a lot. I always like places where I get to dance, in my own way - not like the firang night clubs where you have to dance so restrained. Bhangda nahi kiya to kya dance kiya!
All in all a good night, well spent!
Kavnish, thanks for the food...Burrrrp! And all the best for a happy married life.

Munnar from an Auto

Thanks to Good Friday, there came another long weekend, and I dint want to spent it like the last one – sitting at home and watching TV for 2 straight days. Even Udi was insisting to get away from Bangalore. But I was too lazy to plan anything in advance. As a result by Friday I afternoon I realized that spending 2.5 more days in Bangalore would be a nightmare and its time to get away. Munnar - came the suggestion from Chaudhary, which got finalized and the accommodation, travel etc everything was decided on Friday evening. We had to leave the same night. I had to forgo my sleep (I really hated it) to go and get tickets since nothing was available online on such short notice. Already a day was wasted.
Anways, me, Udi and Pravin reached Munnar on Saturday afternoon. Leaving its relatively difficult reach aside, Munnar is one of the most beautiful places in southern India. For the non-initiated, it is a hill station in Kerela, and used to be a summer resort for British Govt whenever they were there.
Journey, Lodging and local travel:
I thought it would be an over night journey, but it was a long one. Due to such short notice planning we did not get reservations in the direct bus from Bangalore to Munnar and our route was:
Bangalore– Coimbatore-Private AC Bus-7hrs
Coimbatore – Udumallai pet – State Bus– 2hrs
Udumallai Pet – Munnar – State Bus -4hrs
The last 6 hours of journey was in strip down state buses with no reservations and we travelled most of the time standing. But it was fun, since it made me remember by DTC days in engineering college.
The hotel where we stayed was 17kms from the Munnar town. The view outside from the room’s balcony was breathtaking. The skyline was visible with spiral roads, lush tea gardens, small houses, mountains and clouds painting an extremely beautiful sight.
The best part of the trip was that we did all the sight seeing and travelling, by an Auto. We hired the auto for 2 half-days. The auto waala was very cooperative, who waited for us, without creating any fuss, took us to the best places to eat in Munnar town and guided us where to buy tea from. If you wanna have that thrill too, contact Alagu Autowaala in Munnar at 9447825632.
The weather in Munnar was fairly cold but not chilling. It was pleasant and as I said the view from our hotels balcony was simply breathtaking. I want to take mom to Munnar. She would love the place. Large part of Munnar is covered with Tea plantations owned by various tea estates. Places that we saw were:

• Mattupetti Dam - 10km from Munnar, this popular picnic spot activities like boating and horse riding and is a great place to spend the day. We could just have a look at it, since on the way back we did not had much time left to spend on the dam.
• Mattupetti Indo-Swiss Farm - Better known as Mattupetti (cattle village), Tamil migrant laborers had once upon a time reared cattle here. The cool climate and abundance of fodder made it the ideal location for the Indo-Swiss dairy farm. The dairy farm is a unique one of its kind with more than 100 varieties of high-yielding cattle being reared.
• Echo Point - 15km from Munnar, on the way to top station from Munnar is a small lake set amidst rolling hills. Every loud call made from a spot on the lake embankment is returned manifold by the echo from the surrounding hills. Have a look at this beautiful place, in the adjoining picture.
• Top Station - 37km from Munnar on the Kerala and Tamil Nadu border, has great views of the Western Ghats. Top station is the "top"-tourist attraction. This place gives a real 'above the clouds' experience. The area is known for the Neelakurunji plant, which flowers only once every twelve years. The flower is violet.
• Kundala Lake - This lake is very beautiful amidst lush jungles. Hiring a pedal boat and exploring the lake and its surroundings is an awesome experience. Except at the place you hired the boat, don't expect to find humans around the lake as it is surrounded by scenic jungles and hills.
• Atukkad Waterfalls - A scenic waterfalls amidst hills and jungles. You can find a road leading to Atukkad Waterfalls on Kochi road (just about 5 km from Munnar). This road is very narrow and needs a lot of experience to drive on. Besides, at this time of the year, the waterfall wasn’t too big, but turned out to be a great photography spot.

People of Munnar seemed to be quite friendly. Kerela being the most literate state, stands up to its name, with every one from Auto driver, to the rediwaala selling honey – able to understand and speak decent English. I bought honey and tea from Munnar. We spent 24 hrs in Munnar and could cover most of the sight seeing places. In addition to it, the drive anywhere is full of viewpoints and photo spots. Its not too commercial till date, and that may be because of its relatively difficult reach. While leaving all of us were feeling if we could skip the Monday's office and spend a day more in Munnar. But we all knew, this excuse would not find much favor with our manager and we reluctantly started our return journey.
I had great fun in Munnar. So if you have 2 days to spare and wanna beat heat, run to Munnar.

Hatsoff to Raheman, Sukhwinder, Gulzar Combination

Have a look at the amazing lyrics of this song.
Stolen from http://inkspillz.blogspot.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
Jai Ho! ^n
Aaja aaja jind shamiyaane ke taley
Aaja zari waale neele aasmaane ke taley
Jai Ho! ^ n
Ratti ratti sachchi maine jaan gawayi hai
Nach Nach koylon pe raat bitaayi hai
Ankhiyon ki neend maine phoonkon se udaa di
Gin gin taarey maine ungli jalayi hai
Eh Aaja aaja jind shamiyaane ke taley
Aaja zari waale neele aasmaane ke taley
Baila! Baila!(Dance! Dance!)Ahora conmigo, tu baila para hoy(Now with me, you dance for today)Por nuestro dia de movidas,(For our day of moves,)los problemas los que sean(whatever problems may be)Salud!(Cheers!)Baila! Baila!(Dance! Dance!)
Jai Ho! ^n
Chakh le, haan chakh le, yeh raat shehed hai
Chakh le, haan rakh le,
Dil hai, dil aakhri hadd hai
Kaala kaala kaajal tera
Koi kaala jaadu hai na?
Aaja aaja jind shamiyaane ke taley
Aaja zari waale neele aasmaane ke taley
Jai Ho! ^ n
Kab se haan kab se jo lab pe ruki hai
Keh de, keh de, haan keh de
Ab aankh jhuki hai
Aisi aisi roshan aankhein
Roshan dono heerey (?) hain kya?
Aaja aaja jind shamiyaane ke taley
Aaja zari waale neele aasmaane ke taley
Jai Ho! ^ n

I like Melbourne

Melbourne
February 20, 2009 10:43 AM
Melbourne is an extremely beautiful and lively city. Its in south of Victoria State, which is in South East Australia. What a marvellous place! It is known as the cultural and Sports Capital of Australia. Melbourne is consistently ranked among the most live-able cities in the world.
I am here just for a month but I could absorb the essence of this place. I stay in Central Business district which is the business hub of Melbourne. It’s the main market place bustling with people all day long. Walking from here are many tourist attractions in the vicinity such as Federation square, Rod Laver’s Arena, Flinders’s Street Station, Yaara River, Melbourne Aquarium, Queen’s Victoria Market etc. Besides that the beautiful beaches of Melbourne are worth seeing.
Federation square is a huge open place with a large screen and various big and small restaurants and Pubs. It’s just next to Flinders’s Station and generally during the weekends and evening some thing or the others keeps going on like live performances, magic tricks or juggling. People keep sitting idle on large staircase in front of the screen sipping their coke and relaxing.
Queens Victoria Market is like our Azadpur Sabji mandi of Delhi. During summers they host a Suzuki market from 5:30PM to 10:30PM every Wednesday. A nice patri bazaar like our Dilli Haat. With various stalls selling all kinds of stuff. There were food counters of all countries – India, Mauritius, Mexico, Thai, African etc. I tried African and Mexican. It was good. And a live band was performing in open. This market is close to Victoria Univ and was crowded by college goers, in all their whacky dresses, which do not even justify their purpose for some.
Melbourne has lot of Indians and you will surely find some one walking behind you or inside the tram who is a desi. I mean to an extent that the Indian shopkeepers don’t even get excited to see a desi. Its usual stuff for them. Man! It’s so much better than Switzerland, which was totally a different world and I felt so out of place and uncomfortable. There are lot if Indian stores here (Pic attached) which are exactly like our kirana shop, and not very expensive. The public transport system is quite sufficient with Trams, trains, taxi and ferry and common ticket for all of them.

I just happened to talk to a Sardarji taxi driver (most of the cab drivers are Punjabi) who told me that he studies here, some mechanical diploma and drives taxi during evenings and weekends and makes about 800$ a week. Thatz good money in every respect looking that I make few dollars more as a consultant. Besides this, the petrol and taxi maintenance is provided by the owner of the taxi and the Profits are split half-half between him and the driver. I am seriously consider this option during these bad times of recession.

Melbourne zoo is good enough if you want to spned a couple of hours in a different way. Lots of animal and it requires a lot of walking, but its good. For my freinds who want to know how come the zoo authorities let me come out of the zoo: May be they got fooled by my appearance and mistook me for a human being.

There is so much more to Melbourne which I want to share, but I am bored of typing. All in all, you must see Melbourne if you ever get an opportunity. My verdict is that Melbourne is a kind of place where one may want to settle :-)

Process of Self psychological discovery | Road Less Travelled

I am reading this book called "Road less travelled" written by Dr. M. Scott Peck, M.D, Harvard passout. Basically this guy is a psychologist in addition to being a deep thinker. My reason for picking up this book is firstly that mysterious subjects like human psychology interest me. Secondly there are a few strange things in my way of thinking, for which I want to discover, why I think this way.
Anyways, I picked up the book because I thought it would be an interesting read. Let me tell you, I’m the guy who thinks everything is logical and everything can be deduced from other things and most of the things in this world are obvious. The unique thing about this book is that it proposes some things, some ideas which are Radical, and supports it with arguments and experience.
Few points that author made about love that particularly interest me are:
1. Falling in love is not love actually.
2. You truly start to love someone when you ‘fall out of the love’.
What Dr. Scott means is that falling in love is involuntary and no matter what, the charm and newness of falling in love would eventually fade away. This is what he refers to ‘falling out of love’. That is when people start to see their differences with their loved one, their dissimilarities. Falling in love is a passive process. You don’t have to make an effort for it. So is falling out of love.
Doctor’s most valid argument is that real love is an active process which involves "Work" and "Courage". To be honest, I feel I lack both of them, though I quite agree with the importance of both these attributes in a true relationship. May be we all know it instinctively, but to read it out was a moment of awareness. Hence, the non-essence of love is Laziness. Oh man, I feel sleepy.

Author also talks about the importance of listening in a relationship and says that complete listening is a tiring and energy-draining process. We think we are completely listening when we are with a friend, family or business associates. But we are actually doing only selective listening with a specific objective in mind. It seems in most cases of psychological disorders, the patient shows major improvement by the assurance of mere fact that the therapist is completely listening to them, may be some1 for the first time in years, first time ever, even before the root cause of problem is touched at all. For relationship counselling’s they often tell couples to listen to each other (when a doctor says that, it doesn’t sound this general and ‘ya, ya we know all this’ kinda stuff) and ask them to talk to each other with appointment (strange?). This is because complete listening cannot happen while driving or cooking. It can only be done with specific time scheduled only for this purpose.
There are numerous interesting concepts that author discusses, like importance of parenting in life (it is the biggest influence on our life and to know how long it’s affects reach, read the book), how most people never grow up and become independent, mature individuals (let me warn you this goes much beyond your general understanding of what maturity means. It doesn’t means these guys are afraid or unsuccessful in life or careers) and remain a child long after their parents have been dead and buried, importance of the concept of bracketing, i.e., to keep prejudices away while talking/ listening to someone and many other in addition to the ones which I could not comprehend clearly.
Well, I liked the book because Dr. Scott all the times talks about a typical individual like me, who thinks that whatever he is doing is perfectly right, who thinks himself mature, independent and intelligent, has certain fears about which he doesn't know, and behaves in a particular fashion. But upon the revelation of various factors that have gone into his this kind of behaviour - which make perfect sense to me - he analyses why that person is behaving this way, or why is it unhealthy to behave this way. Basically doctor takes Spiritual Growth as the ultimate objective for all our behaviours, which is closely related to mental growth.

I think everyone, who is as self obsessed as I am, should give a glance to this excellent book. It gets a little boring and abstract at few paes, but thatz okay, since as I said the doctor is also a deep thinker. Of course reading his book is not a substitute to attending actual therapy, but it does gives you many insights to why you behave, the way you do.

What did u just say? It’s a long post? Back off!!! Its’ my blog. (What? Attitude problem with me? I think so :-)

Bangalore to Melbourne

31/1/2009 11:25PM
Bangalore Airport.
Journey: Bangalore to Melbourne, Australia via Bangkok.

My flight is at 12:30 AM. This is the fourth month of my consulting career. This is my second project and it is my second good friends wedding which I am missing. Its tonight in Dehradun. Its going on right now as I type this. I missed Nayyar’s wedding also by the margin of 1 day during my first project in Geneva, Switzerland. And now I am missing Apul’s wedding – weddings for which I had made a promise to myself, that I would attend whatever may come. Sadly my project travels are not scheduled based on my self-promises. I just had a talk with all the lucky ones who could to make it to the marriage. Every one is having so-so much fun. I know I am being missed there. I miss being there, too, and quite obviously. Any day in the company of old friends rather than sitting at an airport hitting laptop keys and looking at strange faces sitting right across and waiting to board the flight. Its time to board the flight.


2/2/2009 11:02AM
Service Apartment, Melbourne.

After a long flight via Bangkok and lots of in-flight sleep I have finally reached Melbourne. Melbourne has a striking resemblance to India, which goes much beyond the weather (well, I mean Delhi’s extreme weathers which take lives in summers as well in winters). Its pretty hot in here at this time of the year with maximum temperatures ranging between 45 degrees C to 33 degrees C. The moment I got out of the Airport, into a cab, it was normal left lane driving which we have in India. Traffic immediately became familiar. Good roads, Over head bridges crossing roads, direction signs, banners, road side showrooms and service centers, the railings on the road sides which are used, the trees, bushes, pavements even the neon signs – its EXACTLY what we have been used to – may be not in Chandni chowk area, but of course Gurgaon. Yes. The immediate feeling of comfort came from its resemblance to Gurgaon. Another factor is that you get to see a lot of Desi faces here. Things suddenly don’t feel foreign anymore.
The Service apartments where I am staying are pretty good and take care of all your basic needs and luxury. Sharp Plasma, Kenwood Audio system, LG Split AC, Washing Machine, Dryer, Iron, iron board, Oven, Dishwasher, Microwave, Utensils, lamps, bathtub – it seems to have got everything. Its on Floor 34 and the adjoining image looks at the 6th floow from 34th floor. I like it here. Let’s see how the work goes. But one thing stays - that I miss my freinds and especially attending Apul's marriage.