Feverish Christmas

Well, this is my first fevery christmas of my life, as far as I remember... and my first downtime of the year 2007...
The changing climate of Bangalore has taken me also, in its grip... 2 nights and the 2nd day, still trying to recover....
I have improved on the grounds(using this term as I can now stand on my foot). The weakness is gone but my throat is still choaked... sounding like "Kitn aadmi the" fame..... !!! :( ....
taking the yuk medicines.. hoping to improve so that I can go to office tomorrow....

couldnt spend time with my PS2 as I am no allowed to put strain on my eyes... :(..

Merry christmas to all the fit people...

School Day at My Office.....

Date 20-12-2007..... Day: Thursday.. all the colleagues are in white shirt and our team jackets.. Well hold on before your brain starts processing... the trousers were at individual;s discretion.....
We had a school day in our team... quite an exciting day that was but the strength was very less due to the vacation time.... coming back to the school day...
Started of our day with the school prayer...we just played the link that I already posted in my blog.... followed by principal's lecture as why are we conducting the school day.... some colleagues(Students) were blacklisted in advance, and whosoever is found talking to these guys will be fined.... these guys were intentionally trying to talk to other people... well seemed like they had an understanding with the fine collectors, to share the amount [;)].....
so our classes started at 10 am. Every student was to attend three classes(the time table was already mailed in advance). Maths, Crafts and civics, these subjects fell into my basket.....
First came the maths class... wherein the teacher could not understand how to start the class. What to start was obviously the biggest doubt of the teacher..... all on the lighter side, we discussed something on integration, market and yellowstone national park(sleeping volcano)....
Second was the crafts class. The class was taken by a very sweet girl of our team.. sorry guys, no name revealation here in the blog.... [:)]..... we had crafted a christmas sock..... finished the class with throwing paper planes, rockets or samosas on each other.... well, we all are grown up guys we did clean the room.....
then followed the lunch and after that the last class, civics... wherein we discussed the fundamental rights, though i cant cram these things word by word,, but can discuss anytime if someone initiates.....
after the class was over, there was a closing speech by one of our team mates and followed by national anthem.
In the evening, we went to Unwind Island for the team dinner.. played 3 games of pool, and then danced for around 3 hours on the floor... DJ was really good, playing combos of hindi and punjabi numbers....
dinner was not that good... but still have to eat to fill in the stomach.....
reached home at around 11.45 pm...
next day, got some fever and still trying to get over it.......

India's new Anthem

The following link has been sent by one of my friend. Its great......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLnDwLmVIyY

I could not stop myself making it a part of my blog.

Please watch and try to follow it...

Chikamanglur -> My experience

http://www.nivalink.com/tajchikmagalur/index.html


Lat night, I returned from Chikamanglur, where I had gone on a team outbound activity. The place can be well related as Indira Gandhi’s constituency as she has never lost elections here. Unlike the name, the place did not have any chicks. Our stay was arranged at Taj Retreat Resort ( I think its another 5-6 kms from the city itself). Its 6-7 hours travel from Bangalore, quite a long journey but thanks to SRS travels for sending a comfortable bus.
The schedule was as follows:
Thursday -> Start for Chikamaglur at around 12.30 pm. Reach the resort at around 7 pm. Have dinner, get introduced to the trainer and take rest.
Friday -> whole day team games and team oriented activities, and break for tea/coffee, lunch and a dinner near the bon fire.
Saturday -> trek to highest point of Karnataka in the morning, have breakfast at the peak point and come back. Start for Bangalore at around 1 pm.



As per the schedule, we had hardly delayed the things. It might be due to the reason that the delay time has already been buffered by the organiser and he announced the schedule accordingly. Thursday morning, everybody was very excited in the team and as expected, no one was in mood to work on that day. We were just waiting for the clock to struck 12, so that we can proceed for lunch and then, way to go, start for Chikamaglur. Someway or the other, we passed the time and then a call from the organizer to head towards cafeteria to have lunch. We finished lunch, carried our bags and headed towards the bus, waiting for us near the exit gate of our company.

After a playboy photosession near the bus, we started our journey. The climate was also kind of cloudy. The journey started with ragging of new colleagues (as per our team custom), dumb charades and some other small activities. One of my colleague has brought a DVD of comedy classics - Chupke Chupke, Golmaal (Old) and one more. Unfortunately, it did not play in the DVD player. Later on we found that the DVD was not burnt as per the media format. We had two options then, either watch Himesh Reshammiya video songs or watch cartoon movies. All of us preferred original cartoons over a crap cartoon(Sorry, Himesh Bhai... no offences). We passed time by watching, Monsters Inc. and Madgascar. Both are such a wonderful movies. I hope our Indian animation Industry will also compete one day in the international market.


Finally, reached Taj Retreat at around 7.30 pm. It was slightly drizzling there. I tried to take some snaps, but it was too dark to click a glossy pic.








We carried our luggage and reached reception where we were offered a welcome drink(dont know what it was, but tasted very good)

. Our trainer, Col. Bahadur was present there to greet us. We were told to gather for dinner within half-an-hour. The rooms and room-mates were alloted beforehand, so we took our keys and headed straight to our rooms.




The rooms were great and warm. On entering the room, we found a packet of chips and a box of dry nuts on a table. (Well, I feel sorry for the people who started eating... paid stuff guys.... 175 bucks for a small box of cashews.. too much)... We also noticed some beer cans and bottle of cold drinks in the mini-fridge. (Again, the paid stuff)..... After freshing up, we headed for dinner, but before that its drinks time... the non-drinkers were playing pool(in the bar itself)... After spending about half-an-hour there, finally, it was the turn to sooth the rats...... i mean dinner time.... The food was simple but it was good... soup, veg, non-veg, rice, desserts and salads... Ate quite a lot... A round table in the middle of restaurant was already reserved for our team..... There was no activity following as it was quite late.... dicsussed next days activities and went to bed for sleep... Other morning, new morning but looked quite hectic and enjoyable to... woke up at 6 am as we had to go for a morning walk at 7. My roomy was still sleeping, so didn't disturb him.


I wore my shoes and took out my camera to take some early morning pics.... Took some pics and headed towards reception..... At that time, only me and one of my colleague was there.... I would not like to mention Mr. Col Bahadur also.. as it is implied that army people and time are best of buddies..... Slowly and slowly, everybody gathered.... and we started off with our first activity for the day..... It was a walk of around 3-4 kms...could be more than that.... took some pics on the way.......... When we returned back to the resort, we felt as if we had not eaten since so many days..... Quite natural, not habitual of morning walk and all of a sudden you are made to walk for this much distance...




So straight headed towards breakfast.. had 2 omlettes, vada, idly and juices...... We were given 30 minutes to freshen up, after which, we were to start the team activities. So, took bath and gathered in the ground for the games. When reached the ground, I saw 19 chairs arranged in a single row for us and 1 chair facing the other 19... obviously for the trainer..... After everybody gathered, the formal introduction from trainer started. He had arranged around 5-6 games followed by deep briefing after every game, wherein, we were to discuss the learnings from each game. In between, there were two sessions of tea and a lunch break. I didnt have much as I already had a heavy breakfast. At around 4, came the most awaited part for which my team members were eagerly awaiting for.... "A DIVE IN THE SWIMMING POOL".... It was too cold there in the evening so I preferred not to go..... The dive in pool alongwith KF(KingFisher beer, I hope if it were KF girls), made the people's eveing very relaxed.......


In the night, we had good dinner around the bon fire...... and finally we end the day with a good sleep...........






The next morning, we were to go on a trek to the highest point in Karnatka.. I could not go as I was not well... but looking from the pictures, I can assure it was the place, not to be missed....

I was sleeping in my room... (such a bore....)........ woke up, had bfast, played a game of pool with my friend(he also didn't go)... (Not everyone who doesnt go is a bore)... he he he...

When everybody returned back, we had a final session by our trainer, where, he asked each of us to tell about our expectations, and whether they were met or not..... Learning by fun, getting to know the team in this way, is such a great experience.. and everyone looked satisfied.....


Finally came the time to leave the paradise. We started at around 2 from there.... and reached Bangalore, at 7.30 pm... The cabs were waiting for us to drop at our respective address.....


Well, it was a good experience... I must say, a place to go atleast once......


Chow, njoy reading

Vahan Yatra 2007 – The bird’s eye view

Well, today we got a chance to take a bird’s eye view of Vahan Yatra 2007 (Auto Expo) at KTPO, Whitefield in Bangalore. I have to call it a bird’s eye view as the show was not in a full swing. The people were still setting up the stalls. I hope it will start by tomorrow.

My manager had some passes but we hardly used it as there was no one to check at the entrance. As soon as we got down from our bikes, we were stunned looking at some of the bikes (no, not in the parking slot) but parked in one of the stalls. I was amazed looking at those bikes especially the tyres as they were much thicker than my car’s tyres. One more reason to be amazed could be because I have seen these bikes for the first time in my life. (except for the movie Torque and Dhoom). I have even seen USA in TV, but the things are quite different when you see them in reality. I took some snaps and entered the hall.

The very first stall we landed upon was Reva. They had 3 models on display -> the classic Reva (did not like much), Reva(designed by Dilip Chhabaria).. The wow factor -> open roof car in red color. It reminded me of Saif’s car in Salaam Namaste minus the white roof. They say that it’s the future model.
The price is between 3.5 – 4.5 lakhs.

Then I laid my eyes on the contrasting twins – Swift (one white and one black color). Though the cars were locked, I got a chance to have a look in the boot of the white one. It had a JL audio woofer installed around 12-14 inch size. I can imagine the level of output that it might be producing.

Then saw a huge vehicle in red-pink kind of color, big tyres…. Modded by Chameleon. I think these people are more into selling alloy wheels as I saw variety of those in their stall. Even saw an Atlas stall but nothing was there. JBL and Audio Dynamics (In-Car Entertainment brand) were still setting up the things. I hope more people from ICE will be coming up.

And now the show-stealer, saw Porche black in Stanley’ stall.

The things are still under preparation and will take a full swing on the weekend. I have taken a pass from my manager and will be visiting their with my wife on Sunday, 9th December, the last day of the show.

Looking forward to see lot of cars, ICE(In-Car Entertainment) stuff and lots of hotty babes. ;)

Chow….

Another weekend gone

Another weekend is about to say goodbye. Its 8.30 pm, Sunday and as usual, the thoughts of waking up early, and going office tomorrow morning, are turning me off. But I can't help it.. Like every morning has its evening, every Sunday will be followed by a Monday(getting too philosophical, right !!!! :).......


Today was another lazy Sunday like all of my Sundays... As most of the "ghar-gharasti ke kaam" were over on Saturday itself, I had got whole of today for relaxing and doing nothing except, brushing teeth, taking bath(this is also skipped sometimes) and going to toilet(cannot be skipped at any cost).

The task list for the day can be easily counted on fingers, actually one finger itself... well, you people are free to use any kind of mathematical equations also, but I will be happy counting it on a finger only.

No commas, no etc.'s and no bullets.... just two words, one on the left side of and, and another one on the right hand side. TV and sleeping.

Yeah, I know, I had shown to much of laziness for the day but thats me. Like to live on my own terms and I suppose everybody else also would like to live, like that......

Ok, then.. that is for the day... Waiting for another weekend to come..



Gud Night...

Aaja Nachle - Thanks for bringing me out of OSO and Sawariya's nightmare

Finally the story of OSO and Sawariya has come to an end. No, I am not comparing the financial aspects of movie here. I am referring to my woes related to these crappy movies.
No marketing, no overhype but a simply good movie to watch out for. Madhuri Dixit has brought back her magic back on the screen.
What is so good about the movie ????
- Good Script
- Great choreography
- Nice songs
- Well placed songs
- Great Casting. Not a single character has been under/over utilised. seems that characters were thought of first and then the story was written.

Above all, the return of diva on the screen. Madhuri Dixit. She has always been a fav actress of mine, the comments here are in no way biased.

Kudos to Vaibhvi Merchant(the choreographer) and the director specially for the last 10-15 minutes(should have been cut down a bit) of the movie, where both these people have brought out the talent, out of every character.

Though movie for the first 20 minutes is quite slow but after that it catches pace. Comedy till post interval. No one would have wondered that even Konkona Sen(having Mr and Ms Iyer and 15th Park Avenue like movies to her credit) can also make people laugh.

Saturday O' Saturday

Well, after a long 5 days haul, finally it's a weekend. I had lots of work today. So started the day by waking up(obviously you have to wake up to start a day), at 7 am and opened the door for my maid. My sweety Zeny(Zen Estilo) needed a bath after so many days, spent around an hour on the car wash to bring back its shine. Now it was my turn to bring back my shine. Obviously, had not spent an hour on myself for that [:)].

After a great breakfast(aallu parantha with butter and a nicely prepared cup of tea) prepared by my lovely wife, headed towards Forum, the Mall on a very difficult mission. I had to call it a mission as I have to drive down to Forum on the crowded streets of Bangalore and then look for a parking space in the Mall. spent around half-an-hour for exchanging a kurta that my wifey had bought the previous day, bought some stuff for preparation(for my friend who was visitng home in the evening) and returned back home.

Then came the boring part, where I had to do nothing but simply while away my time and wait for my friend and his wife to visit. Wifey was busy preparing snacks for them, so couldn't disturb her also.

Finally, the visitors arrived. I met them after a long time. Had noodles and bhel-puri(Courtsey: My wife). We had a great time.

Then, time to turn on the idiot box... Miss World 2007 and the movie, Fast and the Furious were entertainers for the day.

and now the most fav part of the day... Sleeping time

Chow,