Eclipsed.....

The picture shows the current feeling inside me.....

hmmmm....like the Sun coming out of the dark, with the week taking a turn today on Wednesday, with the Saturday being off....and Sunday being a hol (under normal circumstances)...things look bright coupled with some other happenings which cannot be mentioned here.... :)

"AM LOVING IT"

Need a break...need to rest.....

Feel like going to some place around Chennai....its been a really longtime since I moved out of Chennai for some short weekend break or even a single day outing will do wonders....

BUT, courtesy last weekend expenditure - a pain to wallet which was further aggravated on Monday due to a silly mistake....I think will have to live like a real Baniya for some time....(am a Baniya - but money generally keeps slipping away from my hands)

The weather looks good outside....but till when will it be like this....
Hoping it rains today....

Such weather reminds of Bhubaneswar days - the day it used to be hot, it had to rain that evening, but here, only one part is true - the day is hot - in evening it may or may not rain. Probability of rains is pretty low.

Have heard that October - December, Chennai receives decent amount of rains....lets see how decent is considered decent here.

Started reading up a new book - "Brand Portfolio Strategy" by Aaker after finishing off with "The Tipping Point"

Thats how the evening time passes by.....

Still have to see Mangal Pandey and with the kind of reviews No Entry is getting will have to see that also....

So....in the world of cricket....why was Rahul Dravid stripped of captaincy when Ganguly joined the team....Ganguly a person...whose cricketing days are over....got reinstated as a captain....

After loss to New Zealand, Ganguly did have guts to say that Batsmen should contribute more.....what is he....he is a captain....he should lead by setting an example.....

Today in advertising world, for a change our cricketers are less and less to be seen....hopefully they will now concentrate on their play....

On Sunday - Posting from Office

Well in 3 months of my work life....its my first Sunday when I am in office - DOING WORK.....

Morning went out for breakfast with XIMB friends to Spencer's Plaza. Its so good meeting up with close friends after pretty long time....

And now here I am....in office....DOING WORK....

It looks so deserted....till now I have been able to count 4 people working here, but none in my department.....its so deserted.....with all the cubicles....and the machines lying around with none to talk to....no noise (shor gul)....which is so characteristic in normal routine....

But one good thing...tomorrow I will not be complaining about those "MONDAY MORNING BLUES"....
SO this weekend spent in office....

Don't feel like going out at this hour...this Chennai climate has changed back to NORMAL - Its HOT and HUMID..... [atleast its not HOTTEST]

Another achievement - I have not run away to Bangalore for my second consecutive weekend.

Searching for some more good places around Chennai where we can go out for some weekend outing - with Mahabalipuram being the nearest one [50Kms].

Some more interesting hoardings have been sighted - without company's name - like in one of my previous posts. One of them says "Earlier I used to do it alone, now he also loves to do it"

More such ads have been seen and will be updating more lines as and when I recall them.

Seen pasted on a Reliance mobile scheme poster a Special Airtel Offer of Rs. 99/- [making full use of available space on Reliance Poster [pasted properly - hiding the Reliance Scheme]]

On the last count in the park behind my house saw 8 deers feasting on grass [not the drug kinds] and other plants- they look so beautiful - will try to click them soon after I get a tripod - will have to use zoom and slow shutter speed since they come there in late evening.

What else.....

One of my roomie leaving of for Bangalore with change in Job....why do people have to leave when you just start to get settled and are enjoying your stay together.

What else.....

In the evenings I am reminded of Deep Purple's song - Burn:
"The sky is Red, I can't understand,
Past midnight I can still see the land"
[though midnight can be removed - its late evenings and sometimes the sky looks amazingly beautiful.]

Google on a Roll........

Aha Google is BACK....and dat too with a BANG....

Heee Haaawwww...

Beware Microsoft Beware Yahoo....
You have no clue where Google is going, whom google is targetting.
I should also say.....Beware Skype....

Now does that indicate anything.....

Well well well.....
Google has brought out its own messenger by name of Google Talk.

Try it once and you will like it.

Not at all heavy on ur PC resources, simple and elegant and also has voice chat feature.

All that in the first messenger they launched.

What would the world have been had Google not have existed.

It is slowly entering into everything we do on a PC and scaring the existing players to take desperate actions big time.

Lets see how Microsoft and Yahoo react to this launch.

As usual Google has gone in for a soft launch and am sure is piggybacking on its huge GMail membership for getting as many users for its IM as possible. And its an excellent idea. When you login into the messenger you get your GMail address list and you can invite anyone from them to join the Google Talk irrespective of whether they are GMail users or not....and this inviting is at maximum 3 to 4 steps process which you can just click through.

What would a life be without GOOGLE.....

Currently:
GOOGLE for search
GOOGLE for blog
GOOGLE for mail
GOOGLE for chat
GOOGLE for maps
GOOGLE for news
GOOGLE for sharing photos
GOOGLE for toolbar
GOOGLE for wen accelerator
GOOGLE for translation
GOOGLE for desktop search


Future:
GOOGLE for OS
GOOGLE for internet browser

That would be a dream come true......Microsoft will then face some real competition.....

The Hogenakal Trip.....(updated)

Saturday, Sunday and Monday......was a good break. An extended weekend. Had gone to Bangalore for this weekend. Reached there on Saturday and stayed there with my cousins. That day we spent in Bangalore itself. In the evening we went to a pub there called Legends of Rock. Hmmmmm after such a long time...got to listen to some real good rock music and at a good volume. After having drinks there we went off to a restaurant nearby called "Chandni Chowk". A must go place. Lovely decor. And good food - must have: Makai ki Roti and Saag. But do not try Kulfi there. It is avoidable.

The next morning we left for "Hogenakal". It is a small place in Tamil Nadu. Located in a wildlife sanctuary it features beautiful set of waterfalls. "Hogenakal" means smoking rock. And thats what it looks from distance with all the mist/small water droplets being carried by the wind. From distance it just looks as if smoke is rising from the rocks - but when you go near to the scene is awesome. Another good thing about this waterfall is.....you can experience the please/scare of living (better to say standing) on the edge.....the feeling is scary BUT AWESOME at the same time. During this month (August) the river Kaveri is flowing with some overdose of water creates amazing waterfalls in this region. The water in this area is known for its curative powers. This is one place one should visit if he/she is in Bangalore or Chennai. Another intersting thing to experience here is the boat ride - IT'S DIFFERENT. The boats are circular in shape and made up of Bamboo with tarpaulin outside so that water does not enter the boat. This boat though you will not believe is amazingly strong. Another fun thing you can do in this boat is, make it rotate at pretty good speeds and we experienced it. This is also a good place to go for trekking. We returned from there in late evening and saw the sunset happening on the way back. Looks truly amazing with small hills around the Hosur Road.We went straight for dinner to a restaurant. The place is truly amazingly beautiful....well this is the place where the song "Ek Chhoti si" in the movie Roja was picturised.

The next day was spent resting at home in Bangalore. Cousin bro arranged for my ticket for the night journey back to Chennai by bus. My bus started around 10:30 PM from Bangalore and reached Chennai at 6:00 AM. Sleeping in bus is the most difficult thing. From next time I will try for train tickets for going to Bangalore. And without sleep, got ready and came to office....

Hoping for more such trips into such beautiful spots.

Some of the pics of Hogenakal can be found here

Last evening.....and off to Bangalore yet again.....

Saw a hoarding last evening having a beautiful female model in standing pose and it spoke loud the line "I used to have it once a week, and now I am having it almost daily". Nothing else was mentioned....who had put that hoarding is unknown to me. But, seems they have been inspired by DNA advertising through hoardings in all over Mumbai.....but atleast it was known that DNA had those hoardings. Imagine, a kid asking his parents what does that sentence mean when he sees that hoarding while going to someplace with parents. Where is the advertising going to. As once said "Sex Sells"...so all advertisers and marketers are making use of this so very effective tool to sell anything and everything under the sun.

Last night our senior batch (previous years Management Trainees) in the company am working in gave us a dinner party. It was at a Pub cum Restaurant - BASERA on the East Coast Road. The ambience there is really good.It has both open air and A/C room seating available. We decided to have an Open Air dinner (weather was good and there were no Mosquitoes). We were a total of 13 who had gone there for dinner.If I comment on dinner then I cannot do justice to it. This is because most of us non-veggies were so over-whelmed with the taste of Chicken Lollipop that we had an over-dose of starters. Starters also included Reshmi Kebab and Tandoori Chicken. Mouth starting to water again. After that we also finished of a plate of Chilli Prawns in a straight go. And then was the time for the main course. We ordered main course for sure - but soon after it was served we realized that we have had an over load of starters. We were unable to finish it all off. But should say, it was a good change from the normal food we have for dinner here in Chennai. Must say food was good, but the whole ambience of the place was even better.

After dinner we went of to one of the senior batchmates home since one of them had a birthday today. At the stroke of the mid-night the cake was cut and the Birthday Girl was duly wished with the cake on the face ceremony taking place. Then, Beer and SMIRNOFF Vodka (yeah not Romanov - which is found in Chennai and Smirnoff is real difficult to find here) along with Sprite, Orange Juice and Tomato juice. We all had a nice bakar session till late into the night. Some of us slept there only.

Well since I have to go of to Bangalore today night, I had to do some packing and some clothes washing so had to wake up Arun early in the morning (6:13am) to drop me home.As of now I am sitting in office and had washed clothes in the morning have to reach home asap and pack my bags and rush to Chennai Central Railway Station from where I have to catch my Bus to Bangalore. Don't get confused buses do not run from Railway Station but from the travel agents place opposite the Railway Station. Lets see after reaching Bangalore where do we go. Third weekend consecutively in Bangalore. Saturday, Sunday and Monday heeehaawwww are HOOOLLLLIIIDDDAAAYYYYYSSSSS.........

Hoping to make good use of my new cam in this trip.

My Dream.....Smile Ready CLICK!!!!!!!

WELL WELL WELL JUST CAN'T TELL.....
I have to announce it.... :D

Finally, yesterday I laid my hands on my dream cam....which I had been eyeing for past two months....

Presenting to you: Canon EOS 350D Digital SLR cam.....
Following is the pic of the cam:


It comes with a Canon 28-55mm Lens as part of the kit. In addition to that lens I purchased a tele lens also - 75-300mm Canon EF Lens.

Camera looks same as the one shown in the above pic.....I went for a all black body.
For the additional lens which I bought following is the pic:


Along with it to start of I have bought 512MB Flash Card and by the year end have to get 2GB microdrive hopefully....

To start with, this is a good photography kit...hoping to make the best use of it....right now getting the hang of the camera. Finding out all its functions. I hope to be soon out and clicking....and hoping to get my photoblog active soon.

Drive to Bangalore.....

Firstly, Wishing everyone a Belated Happy Friendships Day, since I could not come online yesterday to leave across a message.

Well am back from Bangalore. It was a official tour but then a good change. The weather there was amazing. In my past two visits to that city - I have had a chance to get drenched. But this time around the weather remained on the cooler side without any rains only occasional drizzle (u cannot call them a drizzle also).

Spent four days there - from Thursday to Sunday. We started straight from office after lunch in car around 1 pm on Wednesday. The distance is around 341 Kms if Old Madras Road is taken which goes via Chittoor. We had taken this road and covered the distance in around 6 hours and 30 minutes with one break in between - for snacks. We entered Bangalore at 7:20 PM. This I think is a good enough time to cover this much of distance. The road for first 50 Kms or so is still under construction, so initially we were pretty slow, but after that the road becomes much better and its a very comfortable ride to Bangalore. Actually faster than train. After having snacks I drove the car upto the outskirts of Bangalore. After such a long time - after 2 and a half months I was driving a car.....WOW.....

The road passes through three states - Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It also passes through an Elephant Reserve, where we did not see any Elephants but saw loads of monkeys. The scenery at some points was absolutely amazing, especially during sunset and when some light drizzle had happened. Will be putting a couple of pics after transferring from my mobile.

In Bangalore I stayed with my cousin bhaiyya and bhabhi. You can imagine the climate of the city from the fact that we did not need to switch on fans the whole day. On Thursday and Friday we did our work. After that we got the weekend free.

When out on the road and roaming in and around the city, the cool breeze is the best thing to feel - and that is what Banaglore gives you almost whole day!!!!!!!! How can people living in Bangalore adjust to any other city where they cannot get a similar climate.

During the stay we ate at a place called "Little Italy". Its an Italian joint there and the food there is good, the pizza crust was refreshingly different from the Pizza Hut's - fresh or stale crust whatever. As a matter of fact I was initially thinking that this place is called "Little Idli" - whats happening to me!!!!!!

Also after such a long time I had good Chhole Bhatoore at Bombay House.

Another mission for which I went to Bangalore was to get a Digitial SLR camera - Canon EOS350D. Found a great shop - Camera Citi, but the camera was out of stock at this shop. Still no problem - its main office is luckily in Chennai, and is supposed to be one of the biggest Indian camera dealers. Will be going there today to see whether I can get the camera now or not.

Well, another beautiful place to visit in Bangalore is the Leela Palace on Airport road. Its really beautiful. The garden was amazingly well landscaped - with waterfall and a small cave. DEFINITELY LEELA!!!

We also saw a movie at Innovative Multiplex. The movie was The Island. Its a movie which is basically trying to be futuristic and tell viewers what might happen if human cloning starts and becomes commercialized. The topic is good, but depiction definitely not. Well its a movie you may watch when ur totally vella but not when you have other options of movies.

We left Bangalore at around 5:50PM and it was supposed to be a night drive. I was home at 12:30 am or so which again means we covered the distance at a good speed with one break.

After long time I went on highway drive (actually after first week of March when I had gone on Gangtok Trip with XIMB friends).

Now I might again be going to Bangalore or some place near to it on the next weekend which is going to be an extended holiday with 15th August - India's Independence Day coming on Monday giving us Saturday, Sunday and Monday as holiday....WOW....Yipppeeee!!!!!

Hoping to go on that trip with the new camera - if I am able to get it today.....

Bangalore is becoming like a second home for me!!!!!

As the Weekend passes by (Updated)

Yet another week passes by and 2 months up in job. Wow I have survived two months and am still enjoying the job. Not many would say that. Lucky me ;-)

Well the weekend went by really well.....Saturday was yet another Saturday Night Fever....u can say a mini bachelors party...loads of masti non stop....it was a drunken revelry at best :D ;-)

And the best thing was the next day dad was supposed to come to my place and everything had to be set right. This task was handled with care and necessary cleaning up activity was carried out and successfully. It was great meeting him and this is for all the XIMBians reading this and who r in Chennai - "ghar se khaana aaya hai" come over.....

Am leaving for Bangalore on Wednesday afternoon. Yet Again!!!!!

Am eagerly waiting for purchasing my camera - the CANON EOS350D Digital SLR Camera. Haven't been able to go to market for a long time. But since am going to Bangalore am hoping to strike a good deal there. So Bangalore ki junta help me.....tell me where r good camera shops there who can give good deals do name smoe and tell where they are. Life feels so empty without a camera in hand....one hobby I wanna seriously pursue....my photoblog is feeling ignored. "Somebody, somebody help me"

Well over the last week a lot has been happening. Imagine in a day news channels had to cover three big reports - Mumbai floods, Gurgaon incident and Bombay High fire. Later on militant attack on Srinagar and also a attempted militant attack on Delhi. hoping things get better for this country soon. Since the year start one calamity after another is striking this country. And when will US of A realize that striking the root of all problems atleast minimizes the problem to manageable extent.

Now I will be blogging back after coming from Bangalore.

UPDATE: Well beat it...I went to see the movie "Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya" for the second time....I know its not worth that respect....but its better to go and see it with friends than sitting at home and doing nothing much....yeah its better to watch Katrina Kaif and Sushmita Sen than idling away to glory at home....