To Chennai!!!

        Time: 6:55 am, 13-apr-2006
        Venue: Road-side hotel just outside KrishnaGiri, Tamil Nadu
        Who??: yer humble self
        Thought: Is this real???

It all began on 12-Apr-06 round about 4pm. After a strenous design meeting, I checked my mails for the first time that day in about 4hrs. **pop** An email. The content read:
"Further to the sad demise of Dr.Rajkumar today afternoon(12.4.06), there could be some unrest in the city. Therefore we are advancing the closure of office hours today by 1hour. **blah blah** Incase the State Government declares a Holiday tomorrow(13.4.2006) we would remain closed."

Oops!! Sad demise, indeed. But a good timing!!! 14.4.06 being Good Friday we have holiday and it was obvious even to a kinder garden kid that 13.4.06 will be a govt holiday. This when transalated into employees english it means 4 freaking days of holidays!! :-) The most obvious choice to occupy the next 4 free days was to GO HOME!!! :-D Obvious isn't?

Now comes the best part. The most non-obvious part. I wanted always to ride down to my home town. Yep ye read it correctly it is ride down on my most-trusted two-wheeler, Pulsar 150. I have done quite a few rides in the range of 150Km to 220Km away from Bangalore but this is gonna be my first 300+ travel. For unimaginable non-indians (if any reads my blog), in India given the road conditions & traffic even a 40Km ride is a torture. But I always enjoyed riding by mobike. So I took decision @ 9pm on 12.4.06. Called up by classmate to find the route-map and my colleague to find the right time to cross bangalore. And he confirmed my thoughts of leaving bangalore before sunrise. And one of his bro-in-law also wanted to join me as pillion. So now it was two of us.

So the next day (13.4.06) @ 5:05 we left home & Bangalore on my most trusted pulsar. We took the Hosur route to Chennai. For those who are not aware, there is one other route that connect Bangalore & Chennai, which is via Chittor, Andra Pradesh. It would mean touching 3 states & I am not sure of the roads either. Hosur is just 40Km from my home. And few km aft Hosur we witnessed a wonderful sunrise. Nice isn't it? Later we reached outskirts of Krishnagiri @ 6:45, which was 101km from home. And here we had to take the historic left turn towards my hometown. Almost immediately aft the turn we stopped for breakfast. And thats when I was thinking "Is this real??? Is this real that I am taking my dream travel? My dream travel to Chennai from Bangalore about 350km apart? Wow! Complely unbelievable."

We left by 7:22 our breakfast centre & proceed further. The first town we crossed aft breakfast was Tirapatur @ 7:47 - 130km from home. Then PuthuKoil @ 8:02 - 148km. Then we faced a road block near Vaniyampadi @ 8:10 - 154km. We did not have any choice but to enter the town. Pretty interesting town. The pseudo-highway cuts thro the town & the town is unaffected by the zooming traffic!!! When I entered Vaniyampadi is when I realized the highway we travelled is the best that is leading out of Bangalore. Entire stretch is a 6 lane & has the median filled with some nice flowersbed. Something till date I have not seen in all the other highways leading out of B'lore. More over, these roads were very well maintained. No potholes. No loose sand. No crushed animals. No nothing just plain sexy road. If you had travelled ever on a highway in India you would understand that this is a near impossible scenario!!!

The stretch also had some amazing scenaries but all I had was my mobile to click. May be before the next time I will purchase a good digi cam. I am planning for a digi SLR but it would take a lot of time. So might temporarily settle for a small, may be, 6 megapixel cam. Dont want to miss such nice opportunity to capture the lovely nature around me. There were so many nice scenic places like a nice temple on top of a small hillock, nice tank-bund with birds fishing, the road curving into the hills and so many more. But no cam to click! :-( **psst... if ye wanna gift me one 1 shal give out my contact info ;-)**

Our next phase of travel was:
         1. Ambur @ 8:25 - 170km
            Halt for 25 mins
         2. Poigai @ 9:36 - 215km
         3. Poondy @ 10:13 - 260km
         4. Ramapuram @ 10:16 - 264km
         5.Kancheepuram @ 10:46 - 296km
            Halt for 14 mins
         6. SriPerambathur @ 11:25 - 324km
         7.Poonamalle @ 11:50 - 344km
         8.Porur @ 12:04 - 352km
         9.Home @ 12:24 - 362km

Reached HOME, SWEET HOME!!!

My Parents were not expecting me. I gave them an amazing surprise. My Mom was completely dumbfounded that she did not even react. I knew she was extremely angry for taking the risk (??) of riding down the highway & such a long distance. But she did not react fearing some crazy remarks from me. My Dad was not in town, unfortunately. He would have loved me (more) for this travel alone. He has done this travel atleast 2 dozen times during a time when the fastest two-wheeler had only 3 gears & one may have to search for roads!!!

The return journey also was a lovely time. I started on 17.4.06 early morn & reached b'lore by aft. In fact, I went to ofc also!!! :-) I clicked some snaps with my VGA mobile cam. And here are they with my travel route:
         1. Home @ 5:13 - 0km
         2. Sriperambathur @ 6:17 - 48km
         3. Ranipettai @ 7:24 - 105km
         4.Vellore District @ 7:55 - 132km
            Halt & Breakfast for 26 mins
         5. Vaiyampadi @ 9:23 - 210km
         6. Jollerpettai @ 9:45 - 223km
            Halt for 37 mins
Forgot to record the remaining details.... :-(
         7.Home @ 13:40 - 362km

This travel was a good event for me. First, I learned that I enjoyed long hours of bike riding. Secondly, I realized the troubles in my bike & repaired them too. Now my mobike is all ready to rock the entire stage with more power & more pickup. :-)

I am working a trip to Pondy, Tamil Nadu or to Goa sometime next month. :-D If I make this travel will update the blog for sure. Nebody wanna join me??

This is Bangalore!!!

I picked this from a fwd. I dont believe it yet I will not dismiss this possibility however remote. Bcoz this is bangalore :-D

Apparently, this is a snap taken in an SBI ATM centre in Bangalore. Crazy ain't it?

Great Bangalorean!!!

Where is the Society that cares & shares???

I am not able to take this and wanted to share this to somebody and where else can I, better than this forum?

Yesterday I received a mail (which is actually a reply to mine) from my childhood friend, who is currently on a short-term official visit to London. One sentence in his mail shook my entire equilibirum; I quote, "but my state of mind was not that good u know my father expired 3 months b4." Unquote.

I did not know that his father passed away! He is my childhood best friend and we share all secrets(**I really mean all secrets**) and here I am not even aware of his father's demise. Damn it, itz been 3 freaking months & I am still unaware of this!!! I am completely depressed from yday.

What troubles me the most is that: my parents live just 3 houses away from their house!!! And even they are not aware of it!!! Freak! I still remember that during my school days, when my father raises his voice my friend would hear it in his house! And now, my parent's are not even aware of this tragedy! Can ye believe it?

What is happening to this world?? Why so much of lonliness? Why is that in search of individualism we are losing the fun of being part of a society? Why is that I am not aware of who is my neighbour and what is happening to him/her? Where the freak are we heading?

Buddy, I know you are not in a habit of blogging but if ye is reading this then just remember that I am always there for you.

Amen.

THUS SPAKE GOD on Women! :-) # 2

In line with my previous post of same name. I did not plan to write a sequel but kya kare could not resist. The following is a fwd I received from my friend immediately after my earlier post. As you might have guess it is a gal, my office colleague. Hot Babe! ;-) My thoughts while reading thro' in a different color

GirlsPsychology !!!

Fraud with Innocent Boys...............oh! me
Fun with Handsome Boys...............me again ;-)
Friendship with Charming Boys...............wow!
Contact with Intelligent Boys...............may be me
Flirt with Freaky Boys...............definitely me
Love with Faithful Boys...............lovely, its me again :-D
& in the end
Marriage with the Rich Boy...............wut? Its not me :-(

Moral of the story:
Chandramukhi ho yaa Paaro,
Sab Ek jaisi hai Yaaro !!!!

And Galz complain that Guyz are not reliable!!! ;-)

Thalapathi - An amazing movie!

Me a big fan of Mani Rathnam. I watched the Rajini-starred "Thalapathi" yesterday, again, & went **fida** for this movie. This is the blog-article I penned down yday immediately after I watched the movie @ 2:30am!!!

Just finished watchin this movie, again. An amazing movie. Wut a direction! Wut a story! Wut an acting! Marvellous. This movie, directed by Mani Rathnam has an impressive star cast. The story was more a modern adaptation (and ofcourse dilution) of story of Karna of Mahabaratha Fame.

With Rajini Kanth taking up the role of Karna, Arvind Swamy as Arjun, Sri Vidya as Kunti (mother of Karna) and Mamooty as (the good version of) Duriyodhana. The indicators of the Karna-adaption are:
1. Sri Vidya giving birth to a child when un-married and very young.
2. This child being found floating & drifting in a drainage.
3. The child when grown-up (Rajini) be-friending Mamooty and Rajini is ready to even lose his life for his friend's sake.
4. Rajini is addressed as a guy who always gives & never says NO.
5. Rajini's Mom (Sri Vidya) requesting him not to kill her other son & his half-brother Arvind Swamy.
6. Last but not least, even the names are suggestive: Rajini Kanth is Surya (obviously Karna wud have been too explicit & more over, Karna is son of Lord Sun) and Arvind Swamy, the half-brother of Rajini Kanth, is Arjun.

Apart from a sexy adaptation, Mani Rathnam has thrown weight into every character. There is no character in the movie that does not make sense or contribute towards story. Apart from the three major characters - Rajini Kanth(RK), Mamooty and Arvind Swamy(AS), every role provides enough dough for the script to survive. Starting from RK & AS's father (Shankar) to RK's love but AS's wife (Shobana) and from the police office (Kittu) to RK's wife's kid. Boy, no one appears on the screen without a role to play. Very very refreshing to watch given the current trend where the directors revolve an entire movie around a single damn hero!

Music. Need I say anything? Illayaraja as created some time-less classics. Think of the Eternals like "Yamunai Aatrile" & "Sundari Kannal" to rockers like "Kaatukuyilu manasukkule" & "Raakamma Kaiyathattu." Zimbly gr8.

Camera! Wow! Santhosh Sivan. He as played with the camera and lights. Actually, I love his usage of natural source of light & contrast available in the nature. The clarity in the shots are also gr8.

On a whole it was a package deal for any **true** movie lovers. It is a gr8 gr8 movie and any day my bet is on this trio - Mani Rathnam, Illayaraja and Santhosh Sivan.

THUS SPAKE GOD on Women! :-)

This is a post inspired by a fwd and a lot of discussion within my google group. Each of us had a different but similar(!!) ideas on this topic. And, cud not resist remembering what GOD as to say about this topic ;-)

A man walking along a California beach was deep in prayer. Suddenly the sky clouded, and in a booming voice the Lord said,
"Because you have tried to be faithful to me, I will grant you one wish."

The man said, "Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can drive over anytime I want."

The Lord said, "Your request is very materialistic. Think of the enormity of the undertaking. The supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific! The concrete and steel it will take! It will nearly exhaust all the natural resources. It is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that would honor and glorify me".

The man thought about it for a long time. Finally he said, "Lord, I wish that I could understand my wife. How she feels inside, what she's thinking when she's silent? Why she cries, what she means when she says nothing's wrong, and how to make her truly happy".

The Lord replied, "You want four lanes or six on that bridge?"

Must be true!! ;-)