Saturday, March 04, 2006

Easy!!..Dude..Easy!!

Huh!!..It's quite Easy to give KT(Knowlegde transfer) to a bunch of people who are more experienced than oneself and do not need any motivation. They are aware that all projects are alike, only the content and context change. I had a very smooth KT and looking forward to be released from here and head back to Bangalore. Not that I own a gr8 business in Bangalore or have a major unfinished assignment,but just for the sake of it(oops!! sounds weird :p).
My stay has been quite nice and refreshing.I should say it was a welcome break from Bangalore, else I would have been lost by this time(Not again!!I am sorry, I dont do it intentionally!!:$) . Bhuabneswar is a quiet city .No large glass buildings to boast of ,no complicated people and finally no miniskirts and heavy makeup!!. Pretty warm at this time. Mercury hitting 40 degrees already.
I had chance to visit some of the nearby places of interest. I had been planning this right since I came to know that I will be travelling to Bbsr. Ultimately on a weekend embarked on a journey to the Sea shore. I was heading for Puri and Konark. The roads,the trees by the side reminded me of NH-17 and my place. Its pretty much the same. I learnt that unlike west coast we dont find hills adjacent to the sea coast. We cant find hills for 300 to 400 km.s from the shore. Its all plain. Geography is varied and the hills too are not continuous and huge like Sahyadri. Interesting!! and this was the reason bbsr and other parts of Orissa were so HOT!!. My first stop was at Konark and the huge temple was visible from a kilometer away. It was hot afternoon but there was no such unbearable heat which I had imagined . May be because of the sea shore nearby. The temple is truly awesome . It sits on stone wheels and these wheels hav been carved in such manner that each wheel shows the time of the day when Sun comes to that point and the Shadows behave like the hour and minute's hand of a clock. I could not stop wondering at the marvel they have created in stone.The temple as such is unfinished and the sculptures are broken and the forces of nature have corroded the minute carvings. There are sex positions which have been depicted on stone . But they have all corroded as the salt content in the air is too much because of being so close to the sea. I felt like a loser as I could not find a camera to accompany me. I could have taken so many pictures.
We headed to Puri from here which is famous for the Puri Jagannath temple.
It was one of the most beautiful drives,along the coast. Reminded me of NH-17 again. Just few days after visiting Puri I learnt that the English word 'Juggernaut' orginates from Jagannath . Interesting eh!! . Puri is just like any other temple town. Reminded me of Gokarna, as Puri also lies on the sea shore. The priests here are very demanding though . They dont let you go unless they get a decent Dakshina. they are standing at every entry point with chopsticks..,(Well not really!!) but they do look like them ,to bless you and stretch their hand for Dakshina , and more interestingly they did this only with me :( as I was not wearing a simple dhoti kurta . Idol of lord Jagannath is huge. The garabhagudi is like a huge hall unlike the small ones we are used to seeing in South Indian temples. Things change as you travel across the country !! well how true!!..Went to the Puri beach and tasted the Bay of bengal waters,it's salty man!! At one point I thought I will watch the sunset and go. But it appeared quite late to this dumbhead that THIS IS EAST COAST!! So used to Arabian sea coast u know!!:$ . It was time to head back home. Happy after the trip and a sense of achievement that ,I can plan too!!. :) Its so Easy!! again!!

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

To Bhuvaneswar

Hi folks,
I am in Bhuvaneswar, from Bangalore..nearly a 1000 km.s away. It was my first long train journey alone. Yes I felt strange as u guys r feeling now. I left Bangalore on Saturday(6th Feb) aftnun . Had to travel to Chennai as i did not get a ticket directly from Bangalore to Bhuvneswar.
It was a nice journey. First time into Tamilnadu. Believe me I can't forget the views of the green fields beside the train tracks. It was just beautiful. And the rocky hills too..They are like huge rocks of different sizes and shapes tied with a rope in an amazing knot and thrown onto a small mudyy hill. Its always a different view for someone who has seen trees on the hills. I like it.
Sun had set over the beautiful landscape. It was Chennai @ 8:30. Someone said Chennai is urrrrrrr..hot!..Yes it indeed is.. .I was walking with my luggage on the platform and sweat seeped out on my forehead, again ..it was 8:30PM. I called my friend Vinay who was still in office. After 10 mins he came to the station and it was a meeting after a one and a half years. Pleased to see him. We had dinner and discussed our lives . It was time ,10:30 was the next train: Chennai - Howrah.
I boarded the train and Vinay bid me adieu and left . I had a middle berth. Believe me its not at all comfortable to take a middle berth. But I had no choice.
Since then it was just the train the tracks and stations whizzing past..One after the other . Did manage to catch some sleep during night. Someone told me in the morning that train was late by 3 Hours at Vijayawada. We were to reach there by 5:00 in the early morning but we were there only by 8:00. I was kind of apprehensive because it was just half the way and we were behind schedule. Correct time to reach Bhuvanswar was 9:00 on Sunday night. If it gets late then it might be very late in the night and difficult for me to get an Auto or Taxi to Infy which is far away from the city. But next to my seat were people from Bhuvaneswar and they told me not to panic as there will be taxis late night. I confined myself to the shanty berth and started reading The Rainmaker. It's a typical John Grisham. Later in the evening I spoke to some of the co passengers. Two of them were travelling to Bhuvaneswar.
It was 11:30 in the night when train reached Bhuvaneswar. It was pretty cool outside. These two guys from Bhuvaneswar helped me in getting a fair deal with the Autowala. Finally he settled for 70 bucks. 20 mins drive from the station to the DC and there I am. Autowala asked for 10 bucks more as he had to come inside the campus.
Done..
Got the room keys and it was lower berth and a smoother couch :)..zzzzzzzzzz....

Monday, January 09, 2006

Lord of the Seven hills

HI,
This weekend, I along with few of my friends had visited Tirupati - The place where Lord Vishnu resides . Here goes my experience on our visit to the 'Vaikuntha' .
All Thanks should go to Bhaskar who had planned and booked the tickets for us. Thanks to his contacts there, we had an easy Darshan and stay also.
Our trip was scheduled on 7th January. We were actually four of us(Me,Prakhyat,Sravan,Bhaskar) till three of Prakhyat's colleagues joined in(Harish,Vishnu and Raveendra). We started at 7:30 on a cool Saturday morning from Majestic . It was a KSRTC Volvo(A.C) bus , and believe me it was more than comfortable, added to it were the roads which I can say were simply superb (After Bangalore city limits offcourse). They were playing Rajkumar and Ambika starrer 'Chalisuva Modagalu' on the bus . I blamed myself for having not seen the movie before, after watching it. It was a nice movie, especially the song 'Jenina Holeyo' .
We reached Tirupati at around 1:00( I dont exactly remember the timings ,only the duration -adjust maadi) . Plan was to tread the path to the feet of the lord , on foot . We took Autos to the place ,where the footpath to the temple on the hill starts . We had some snacks and juices ,thinking that a lunch will be too heavy. We were right!! ..We started off at the base at around 2:15 after offering pooja at the temples there. The huge Gopuram invited us . Since then it was all haldi-Kumkum laced steps and the town of tirupati below, slowly getting tinier. We could hear every one of us breathing heavily, which we are not used to. I was sweating!! Yes after a long time my sweat glands were like yippiee!! . An observant Bhaskar said to Sravan "Andaru baga rubbtunnaru!"(Every one is breathing heavily) . It was after 1 hour of climbing approximately, we reached another point where there is another Gopuram. We stopped there and took a look back at the Tirupati town ,which at this height was visible in its wholeness. "It is quite a big town!!" ,I uttered . From here its an easy road, said someone . Huh!! felt Relieved . After some distance there was a heaven or it appeared to us - A line of tapris . The scent of hot mirchi bajji and the sound of hot Dosas being poured was inviting us(oops! I'm hungry now!) . We were hungry n tired n thirsty . We started off with idlis, everyone preferring to keep the intake within limits. But the taste was awesome and we had Prakhyat . It was tempting - so one more round, and Dosas, and mirchi bajjis after a 'no-no oily food' session . There goes sravan with Lemon Soda,"Man its nice!!" - OK one Lemon Soda each. It was one real filling session we were happy, Burrrppp!!! .But Prakhyat was not showing signs of stopping!! :-).
From here our second session of climbing started . The tiredness was gone by this time and we were up on our feet . Here on there was no 60 degree climbing except for some distance in between . We did dig into some chats and lemon sodas along the way . Probably we took too many breaks in between, and our projected time reaching Tirumala was getting further away. In between we have to walk along the road. We had some very nice points offering the breathtaking views of the scenery around. We took some snaps there and proceeded. Finally after 4 and a half hours of marathon walking we reached Tirumala. By this time our bare feet were crying for attention and legs on the verge of getting cramped . The main purpose was still to be served.
Tirumala is a very clean and cool town. It was 6:30 in the evening and the fog was slowly starting to settle on the town. From here it was all Bhaskar, who contacted the people, got the bookings done and got the rooms. Our darshan was to be at 8:30 . We settled into the rooms and took bath in cold water which we were apprehensive about, and were fearing that it might freeze our nerves and tear our skins. Thankfully nothing happened. We had to wait for sometime before we got into the queue. It was getting cold. Bhaskar's acquaintance made us through the gate and soon we were into the queue. It was moving pretty fast and before I could sense the might and the energy of the temple's stone walls we were near the Lord. Cheers of "Venktaramana Govinda... Gooovindaaa!!" were everywhere. As I approached the inside of the Garbhagudi, I could sense that fearlessness and the energy within me . I didn't know when it took my senses into its embrace. Before the beautifully decorated lord Vishnu, I felt for one moment , " I'm blessed!!" . It was truly an overwhelming and enlightening experience. It was like I am a nobody, just a mere lump of flesh before the glory of the lord. We came out , drenched in happiness. All the tiredness had disappeared, not surprisingly after the Darshan. We decided to have the prasadam and made ourselves into the spacious dining hall. It was a truly satisfying meal and we happily came out of the temple. Every person gets 2 free Laddoos with one Darshan ticket. After collecting the Laddoos we decided to do some shopping. Our legs were reminding us to wrap it up and go back to our rooms. But we overcame the pain to help ourselves with some memorabilia and called it a day.
Next morning we decided to visit some of the other places nearby. We came out and found that fog had embraced the whole of Tirumala. It was a beautiful sight to see the white mist kissing the roads and trees and the headlights emerging from the thick fog. It was a perfect winter morning . Bhaskar and Sravan went to the Laddoo counter and got some extra Laddoos. We got into the local bus and made it to Papanashanam . Here fresh water from the reservoirs above in the hills seeps out of the stone walls . It is believed that this holy water will cleanse you off all your sins. We headed back and on the way did some shopping for idols and other items. Harish, Vishnu and Ravi hadn't booked their tickets and had to rush. Luckily we got a bus headed for Bangalore which was about to leave in another 20mins. We rushed to the rooms and redistributed the extra Laddoos and the packed their bags. We thanked each other for such a nice company and promised to keep in touch .The bus was ready and they headed for Bangalore . We came back and prepared to make a move. We had plans to visit Kanipakam, half an hour from Tirupati town which has the temple of Padmavati-Lord Venkateshwara's wife. But Bhaskar had to get room deposits reimbursed. We had to roam around the whole of Tirumala for almost an hour to find the counter where we had to get the reimbursements. Unluckily that counter guy had gone for the lunch and we had to wait in the queue. By the time things got settled and we came to the bus stand, it was already late and there was little chance that we would have made it before 5:00 to catch the bus back home, after visiting Kanipakam. We came down to Tirupati and had a nice Andhra lunch at a nice hotel. It was exactly the time and we got into the bus back to Bangalore. Memories still lingering and a tremendous satisfaction after our dream to visit Tirupati came true ,which was due for the past one year. I thank each one of us who was part of this journey . Hope we will have such trips every now and then. Thank you...

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

4/1/2006

Sitting in the office waiting for some work to come my way ....waiting till the clock ticks 10'o'clock for that routine onsite call..can be really stagnating... It really makes you think , to do something more sensible(Like coding !! Most of my frens wil want to kill me now!) . But it wont let you because it has spread the poison .
Its a slow poison . You won't know when it started taking u in ..when it spread through ur brain ..intoxicating and paralysing you ...but you will still be alive till that moment of death.

This is a software engineer ..always thinking he has been earning more than his father used to at this age...always dreaming about the 6 figure bank balance at the end of the year(which is next to impossible)....and finally dreaming of that dream girl who will come into his life and caress his tired fingers !! . Tryin to find that gal in evry other female like human being; right from the receptionist to cubiclemate or to someone waiting for the bus.

How strange are human requirements and the different stages a human being is inevitably made to go through(Atlest someone who doesnt dare enuf to break the rules n not follow the 'path to b taken') .
I see these strange creatures who right through their graduation do nothing other than cramming up things , just bcos it had equations which they cannot inderstand , but unfortunately is a 10 marker in the question paper next morning . They want to score marks , more and more of them . But they won't really care about how things work . They want jobs . They are bound to get them after they blind the interviewer with the weight of the marks in their resumes . Now is the moment of real test of their manship . They want a girl , just for passin some time off in the office cafe or for some serious relationship . I have seen people desperately vying with each other for that 'Ms. My gal ' . Some or most are successful in whatever their motives .
This string of events and the responses of a normal human being to them is so amazing. All of us do it , most, completely unaware of it, or of whats drivin us. We are all running , to noland ..no one really knows or don't bother to . I dont know if I have been a faiure in all these normal aspects of a young 24 year old male,just because I have been stopppin,turning bak n takin notice of such common things , way too often . And I really dont bother( but i have started) . But such things still amazes me inspite of the ease with which they can be shrugged off as pretty normal .
Something must be wrong . I really dont know . I have to find an answer to all this .

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

HAP NEW YEAR!!

Its 2006!!..Ushered in the new year with a sober celebration..
NDTV Flashing the news next morning.."India enters new year without any incidents" ...what abt. my hangover?:-o

Resolutions!!

Well!! another popular thingie ..Nothin much! -try to b a gud human being-(i was not copyin ne of the celebrities!!c'mon)..
This time for myself..manage myself well,n things lik that..nothin in specific...C ya til the nxt post..i'll try my best to keep u hooked to 'spotdead'...well that cud've bn a nicer resolution..

Thursday, August 11, 2005

The First line

Well!!
I am struggling!..to write a line..about something ..something that will give my blog a few kb space on blogspot. I seriously donno wat to write. Write about myself?... I hate to, cuz i have always hated blogs which have relentlessly been written to tell badly about its author. Smells bad to me. I dont know....may b i'll end up writing about myself though i hate it..dont know..
huh!! its taking my breath away...i dont want to count the number of lines i have written wen i'll post this...thats it....i cannot take it any more...

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Hi!! ...