Happy New Year

8th day of the year is not too late to post a post about new years. But it aint all that early either. Either ways no apologies :)

Happy New Year 2009 came and went by without causing too much change in my life. Except that hence forth, I have to give my writing a second glance when I am hand writing dates. One gets so used to writing [something]/[something]/08 on every place I have to make a date entry that hence forth, at least for the first couple of months I have to be observant as to what my hand writes subconsciously ( on that note, now I wonder if I have written the correct year in the date I have dropped for the Credit card :|)

Talking of sub conscience, I believe I have been blessed with a sub conscience which, in comparison with a lot of people I know, is better than their living selves. Why do I say this? I have no clue... So coming back from the tangent, the "Happy New Year" of 2009 had me driving to a coffee estate close to Chikkamangalore and party.

A gang of 5 (2 Indians, two NRIs and I) left my work place (I don’t work with any of the other 4 but we happened to leave from my work place because it’s my car ;) ... so much for modesty) at around lunch time. The drive was excellent, with a couple of stops for

1. Fuel for the car
2. Fuel for us
3. Fuel for the night!

We landed in the coffee estate (the name I am trying to recall, but dont seem to do so) by around 9 and got into our cozy rooms. We were given a house on the first floor of a house built in the middle of this estate. Very comfortable rooms with clean bathrooms, which for me is high priority - clean bath rooms; so that I can fuck it up by the time I check out. Once we had changed and stuff (oh my god, my friends are such girls I tell you... they take ages to fuckin take off their trousers and get into tracks... I can never accept a MAN taking ages to get ready... that too to go get drunk... that too in the night... and that too when there are just 5 of us who have known each other for a decade almost and who just spent 8 hours in a car together) we got to eat amazing food. The idea was to eat little so that we could drink a lot and then grab the dinner, but then the food was so good that we all ate our stomachs full. I faintly remember one of us saying "chuck the party, lets hit the sack" but I also remember, that thought was comfortably trashed and the who’s ever thought it was got completely smashed (wow that rhymes also).

We gathered around a badly burning bon fire at around 11. Everything was set. There was the left over food from our dinner (which was hardly anything, everything was in our stomachs) and there was lots and lots of chips and of course we had booze from the duty free shop of Frankfurt (I guess) and music (off the collection of DJ [someone] who happens to be a friend of one of us) being played in the background and cool (in fact cold) wind blowing and all that jazz.

I vaguely remember hugging all my friends at midnight and I also vaguely remember one of us making conversations with god. Rest is history. Happy New Year 2009!!

Lights!! Sound!!

Its difficult not to blog about Mysore every time I visit home. Especially if its a long week end i spend at home, i cant NOT write about mysore. Its such a cool place I say! The roads, the traffic, the greenery, the people, the time one has there is all so overwhelming. Mysore is heaven. Even if its Diwali.



Diwali is here! The festival I hate the most! It should be banned! If smoking can be, so can Diwali! I want justice mii laaaawwd!!



Its been over 10 years since I decided not to be lighting fireworks for the festival. Some “child labor” play thingi I did when I was in school inspired the "young" me not to. It was a fight for the first two years I admit. You know, as a kid its kinda difficult to keep away from fire works. But with time, I figured out a way to resist temptation of every kind. And child labor my foot!!



Its just the smell and smoke and the sound and light and the sense of surprise that is attached with the festival that I hate. You are riding by yourself. As a practice, to avoid the signals, you take the side roads, through residential localities. You are happy. Its festival time!! You have had an awesome lunch and sure are going to have an awesome dinner as well. So you slowly cruise to fourth. BANG!! an atom bomb goes off. "Mother Fucker!!" my mind shouts. This is the element of surprise I was talking about I hate so much!! Those bloody kids who planned this damn thing are having a hearty laugh as well. Thats why I hate kids. More importantly, thats why I hate Diwali!



Happy festival anyway. I hope to have a safe Diwali at home, mostly in my bed!





Keep away from trouble! Be safe! Eat, sleep, Enjoy!!!



Coming back from Mysore, the few minutes before I get into my car are the most painful. It feels like I am being killed and being taken to the scary place below the bowells of the earth where the evil men live! After a relatively quick drive from Mysore, the traffic JAM at 8 AM is quiet a turn off. But like they say, Fate does not a multiple choice question. Its a statment!

The goa trip

Dear Kadambri,

As you know I headed to Goa over the week end. It was such bliss. Not just Goa, but the trip in the entirety.

I left my place at around 7 in the evening on the Friday night. It took a little while to fight traffic and hit the Mysore road. But once there, it was brilliant. Darkness all around, both inside and outside the car with just the bright lights of the car on the road. A scene to be watched. A scene to be felt. I missed you.

There was a plan to visit the jog falls on the way. As we passed through Shimoga, I realised Sagar, the place where I was born was somewhere close by. I made a visit, and after 25 long years, it still feels like home. There seems to be an amazing aura associated with that place. And Jog was at its romantic best. Its too difficult to explain in words Kadambri, but ill try my best. The awesome water fall with 4 different streams hitting earth with great force is a scene to be witnessed, especially in the post monsoon of September. And the mist had accumulated on at the base of the falls, and as I spent about 10 minutes there, the mist covered up the whole place. Nothing could be seen. Not even rocks. It just felt perfect. I wish you were around to hold my hands as I watched the "Nothing". I missed you

I reached Goa and took up a room on Baga beach. Was so tired with the days drive that I went straight to bed. The next day I went to the Fort Agouda. This is a fort that over looks the sea. Another sight to watch. After that I went to the Calungot beach and had an amazing swim. Was on the Jet Ski as well. What fun I tell you. The force of the water hitting the face is a highly refreshing feeling. You would have loved it if you were there. I would have loved it if you were there.

After all the swim I headed to the room to clean myself up. I headed to one of the shacks on the Baga beach to have a drink and have dinner. As the beer sunk in, I took a walk on the beach. I have always felt that a beach is the most romantic place ever. Some day I promise ill bring you to a beach, because I want to be with you on a beach once. As the cold water touches the bare feet, the chill just runs all the body. The body ached and I found it difficult to walk on the sand but then the pleasure of the whole scene was too much to worry about the aching body. I just hoped you were around to walk hand in hand with me and we would walk and speak on into the night.

The next day I woke up and headed to a few more beaches and a visit to the church. Good fun it was. In the night I went back to Baga one more time. I wanted to miss you a little more I guess. This time the beer got to my head a little too much. Or shall I say, a lot more beer got into my head :-) and the walk turned out to be a scary one. Alone, lost in darkness. I am sorry. I am sure if you were around, you would have prevented this. Anyway, no regrets. But I sure did miss you desperately this time though.

The next day I headed back home. On the way I stopped at Gokarna. This was the place that had taken me closest to death. I always had the fear of coming back to this place. I went to the beach. It looked calmer than I had seen it before. Infact it looked perfect. The rocks and the sea hitting to rocks. Very cool. Very nice. You would have loved this too. I missed you.

Thats it from this end about the Goa trip. Will catch up soon

I love you

Jay Jay

fun with "Two malls and the full"

Friday
6 AM
"The journey begins"

As Sunil, Deepak and me left our home on a trip, we didnt know what was coming. We didnt want to know what was coming.
We just left... Just us and the car. Next pitstop - Mysore.


Friday
12 Noon
"The drive into the clouds"

The scroching afternoon sun, sunil at the wheel, all of us charged, having completed the first leg of our journey succesfully and starting off on the first important leg, towards the gods own country so to say. Clear blue skies, where the road ended. Bright white clouds somewhere at the end of the road it seemed. And we drove on into the clouds. But as we headed to the clouds, we realised we had lost our way. We actually didnt have a destination to reach, but the road seemed to go no where. No one knew where it would end. We had to do another 50 km back approximately. We had lunch and retraced back our 50 kms, only to realize that the map, the only source of information we had on our whereabouts was left in the restraunt we just got back from. It was decided to head on, and unlike men, this time we would ASK for directions.


Friday
11 PM
"A romantic walk with 2 Malls and a Full"

The day had almost ended. We had decided that we would stay in a place called "Lakkadi" for the night. But as we reached there at around sun set, we got to know that there is nothing to see there and there is no place to stay. So it was decided we would go to a beach, the main reason for this trip.... I wanted to see a beach.... It had been long. So we reached kozikod and checked into this hotel called "The Beach Hotel". Nice place with an ancient setting. AC rooms which overlooked a lawn which overlooked the beach.

As we had a drink, the first bit of alcohol on the trip and headed out to the beach, the scene was set. It was a full moon day, or atleast the moon looked full. The tides were relatively high I suppose, and the beach was lonely. As I walked in the beach, a little dizzy on the drink, a little tired of the drive, it just felt so nice. The waves coming and hitting the shore and the cool breeze blowing constantly, making music to the ears, the shadow of the moon somewhere far away in the sea, the sound of the drizzle that was hitting the ground, it was perfect. The most romantic setting that I had ever been in. The thing was that I was stuck with the two mallus on the beach and a full bottle of Royal Stag in the room. I passed on both.





Saturday
12 AM
"Welcome to the jungle"

After an early morning walk on the beach at around 10 and a quick shower, we headed towards the silent valley. We had to choose between "Mahe" and this place but it was decided that we had seen the sea, now lets go check out the forests. The journey was amazing. We stoppoed at this small sidey place for lunch. 3 mallu unlimited meals, 2 fish fries, one beef fry, 2 cups of tea cost us a whopping 82 bucks. It was a very small price to pay for the quality of the meal. "Annadata sukhee bhava" Small roads into the jungles. It had become dark as we entered the denser part of the jungle. It was just brilliant. We got to this forest check post. We enquired about the safari thingie. We would have to come back tomorrow morning. It was too late for today. We got more information saying that there was no place to stay well. We had no place to go. Decided to first get our ass out of there.


Saturday
11 PM
"Bang Bang and there she was gone"

We retired into our rooms in coimbator. Yup thats where we landed next. Why and how I have no clue. We just landed there. Thats all I know. Once we had a terrible meal, we decided to do something about our bottle of whisky. It had been with us 2 days, and hardly consumed. We got our glasses ready, ourselves in comfortable positions, cigarettes in place and suddenly out of the blue my had swiped the bottle to the ground. And the baby was gone!!!

Sunday
12 Noon
"...But it rained"

Heading back, we had 2 choices. One was the super fast national highway to reach us home in like 6 hours. Other was thro ooty, a more treachous route and a round about one too. But ofcourse we chose tha later :). So we headed to ooty. Another amazing drive. Partly forests, partly mountain... and partly rain :). It was such a pleasure to see the rain. The forest suddenly looked fresh. It just completed the perfect picture. Awww what a wonderful world!!!

Sunday
7 PM
"Go green till the finish!!!"

We left my house in mysore at around 630. Destination was bangalore. But we ended up in greens. One of the most romatic places I have ever been to. Greens is this hotel in mysore. Its called "The Green Hotel". Open to the air, lots and lots of space, amazing lighting and the best part is no music. We had our coffees and left for bangalore. First time I was driving bangalore mysore at that hour. Just about dark and everyone in a hurry to get back home. And I was in a hurry too. Was just too tired. I needed to hit the bed. And so I ripped... Schumi style. Amazing fun driving a car as fast as it can take you, lighting up the streets on the way.



Summary:
Total Distance covered : 1489 kms
Total Time of the trip : 3 days, 2 nights
Places saw/visited : None

music - ligament and all that jazz

A French goddess of Greek origin. Thats exactly what she was... A goddess!!! Those pretty large black eyes, her long silky hair, her out of the world smile was more than enough to get whatever she wanted. Over that she played the harp like it was a part of her body. The music just reverbrated in my ears as her fingures moved gently over the 47 stringed instrument... I was in love...

This was just the part of one of the most eventful week ends that went by. Met up a couple of friends and headed to this "FireFly Aashram" on kanakapura road. This was my first weekend with my car as well. So wanted to make it big. We left at around 7, after boring ourself to death at a friends place, where around 15 of us were supposed to meet up and leave from.

The drive was around an hour from the city, and once we took a detour from the main road, the road was dark and dusty and lonely and i really didnt know what i was supposed to be expecting at the festival.

The setting:

The stage was set up under a low grown banayan tree. It was an open air theater of sorts. The open air into the dark night gave the setting an added sense of freedom.

The music:

There were about 20 performances, which consisted of different forms of music, from jazz to greek, quawali to naama dholu kunitha. And ofcourse, my love... she was the best if you ask me.

The crowd:

The more i attend these music concerts in bangalore, the more i get impressed by the quality of the crowd. Just like the maiden concert, here were mostly people who really were interested in the music. There was lots of booze and grass and what not happening... but there was abslutely no misbehavior of any sort. There were foreign chicks all around but not one guy letching at them.


The end:

At around 4 in the morning, when the quawali was going on, i headed back out of the crowd to have a smoke. I had to get down from this high rise wall to get to a place that was away from all the people. I took a jump. I screwed my leg. AGAIN. What followed was a day of lack of sleep, a trip to the doctor, an x-ray, hinged knee braces and a visit to a family function where i got all the sympathy.... he he he....

Cheers!!!!

woOow what a week end!!!

Another amazing week end passed by. And WOOOW!!!! What a week end!!!!

Friday night was one big drunk mistake. As a ritual, we met up at some friends place for a couple of drinks to kick start the week end ahead. Normal scene, 4 5 of us sitting and drinking with TV on in the background, and basically discussion work and world cup circket.

I had to leave to hand over some STUFF to a Gotli. So left and Adi joined me to drop me off to my bike. There we decided that we would go out for a cup of tea. What followed next was something i least expected. In an hour from the time we decided that we should have tea, we were in a car heading towards mandya. We IT people just cant seem to live without Coffee Days. The highlight of the journey was this random drunk guy we met on the streets and became friends with. Sandeep was his name. He bloody had the balls to stop our car and talk to us. Proud of you mate.

Reached bangalore and hit the bed at 8AM Sat morning. After 2 hours of sleep and nearly 2 hours on my bike, me and viksa were heading towards palace grounds, where i was about to witness the greatest concert I have till date been to.

Iron Maiden performing live is a pretty big deal for a decent rock fan. And there was a big crowd, mostly in black IM tees waiting eagerly for the show. The turn offs for the who was this opening band called "Fuck the Name" who apperantly had won some "Campus rock" competation and ofcourse Lorren Harris, Steve's daughter. I wonder who the judges were that dick of a competation cos they sucked, and this chick i am sure is not steve's biological daughter. God she sucked. There was this guy in the audience who was like showing his arse to her which was pretty much what everyone was watching.

After all this shit, when IM came on, it was crazy. The stage was just awsome and who can comment on the band's performance. I am sure each one present there was in a high cos of music. The best part of the show was that there was so many people and so much alcohol and so much drugs and yet not one sign of trouble. A rough estimate by me says that there were atleast 20 thousand people in that place and atleast 80 percent were high on alcohol and atleast 50 % were high on grass and other drugs. But it was all so cool. Three cheers to the "Bangalore Rock music followers".

Sunday was a lazy day as usual. The highlight of sunday was the 2 movies I watched. One was this totally hilarious "Honey Moon Travels Pvt Ltd" and the other was Ram Gopal Verma's "Nishabd". Honeymoon Travels lacked a basic story line. It definetely lacked content. But the performance of every start was awsome. Special mentions to Kay Kay and Bomman Irani and for once Amisha Patel has played her part well. The subtle theme comes out of the movie. All in all, 2 and a half hours of entertainment. Time-Pass material.

Nishabd is a master peice. As usual, Ramu does not fail to captivate the audience. The plot becomes complex as the movie progresses and at one point of time, you are so lost in the movie that you are in fact tense on how the bloody plot will be solved. Jiah Khan looks super hot and super sexy but the star of the movie is Big B. After ages, there was love in the experienced eyes of the superstar. Almost subbmissive to love Bacchan's performance is one that is going to be remembered for a long time.

All in all, a splended week end, the worst part being starting off the monday, on UGADI at work. We were like the only company working in the whole of bangalore. WOOOW what a company ;-)

A perfect week end

Its not every trip to mysore I sit and try writing out a blog. Come on, mysore is my home town or atleast thats where my parents live. So I get to go when I feel like going there. But its always been that I dont go too often for more than one reasons which is a completely different blog material. Anyway, what I am writing about is a trip I just got back from yesterday, from Mysore.

This is one trip which made me question my actions in life. I some how felt that in the persuit of life in terms of career and money, there is so much I have lost.

Anyway, lets cut the philosophy crap and this is how the trip went....

Friday evening:
Time: approx 5 PM
Mood: Irritated


Still stuck at work. Release of some major CR's are under way. The testing has been succesful offshore. But the release notes are to be prepared and stuff. And I want to leave. The train is at 6 and I need to get into it. This trip to mysore is pretty important. There has been some kind of family tension at home and there has been a lot of tension in my life too. So I am hoping that this outing back home will put things in its place.
Me and sunil finally leave office at 545. Get home pick up his stuff, pick up my stuff and head to the bus stand.

Friday evening:
Time: approx 10 PM
Mood: Content

After a heavy meal, an amazing meal of amazingly cooked food, we settle down in front of the Telivision, something i dont have the luxuary of watching in bangalore. Have a casual chat with parents for an hour or so. Once they slept we headed up to our rooms. One smoke in the balcony of your Fathers house and you feel so beg. You feel so big.


Satarday morning
Time: approx 10 AM
Mood: Yawn!!!!

Lazily I wake up from bed. Its pretty common when I wake up and see a man sleeping next to me. Its not too uncommon in this busy world of IT. There are men eveywhere, work, play, food, drink, smoke. For Bangalore its raining men. So wake up the man for the night go down for a cup of coffee. Want to go for a drive but the car is not there. Mom out of the blue has got into a "social service" mode. She was born in some government hospital itseems, and now after 50 odd years she feels she has to give it back to the hospital. So she has gone to take care of the patients there, and my dad, like most men is out chauffering his wife. Wonder why they call it a male dominated society.
I take my Kienetic Honda and head to "mailari" so that sunil gets a dose of our Mysore dosas. After a sumptious set masala dose we head to the most visited place in Mysore, Manjus. They should make this place a tourist attraction I feel. Cos every JCite who visits Mysore after college has to set foot in this holy place. The coffees the teas and Manju, a great combination.


Satarday afternoon
Time: 2 PM approx
Mood: Yaaaaawn!!!!

Another heavy meal. Another amazingly cooked home meal. I want to sleep. But I have to take sunil around. So one a sunny satarday afternoon we head towards nowhere. And as usual, first stop Manjus. Next we head towards balmuri. Once small drive and we are there, on the banks of river kaveri. A beer here a smoke there and next moment we are all in the water (All meaning my sunil and a few of my other friends). After a relaxing bath we are back to pitstop manjus. Its almost 6 now, the sun is fading. Perfect time to go to greens. A coffee in Greens is the most relaxing thing to do any evening. Just sit there, legs close to your body, a hot sip of coffee, a dry drag of a cigarette and it feels like heaven. I wish I could do this more often.


Satarday evening
Time: 7 PM
Mood: Relaxed but nostalgic

The coffee in Greens had done something. Was not physically and mentally in the same time-space constant.
The drive to chamundi is one another amazing things that makes me reach the pinacle of happiness. The drive in the dark with just the lights of the car showing the way is just too good. And once we reach a certain height, looking at the lights of mysore is just an awsome view. Far away in the sky, the setting sun, dark clowds with a redish border, and lights of the city make the view breathtaking.
On the way down the hill, we stopped at nandi. Not some thing i have done often. So we went near nandi and there is a cave temple which is not too visited my common man. We went there. That was a nice experience too. That guy there, the baba gave us sugar crystals, with a twinkle in his eye. Wonder what he thougt we were high on ;-)


Satarday night
Time: approx 1030 PM
Mood: Pretty high

The hill was just too good. Not only nice at that instant of time, but the trip down memory lane was also amazing. We headed down to planet x to have a drink and dinner. And since we had time, we needed to kill it. The choice we had was go karting, play pool, bowling, video games or mini golf. We choose mini golf. One hell of a time we had. And just for the record, the score was sunil 3.5 and tejas 4. Succesful victory. To celebrate this, we headed to the restaurant. One taquila shot and a beer and we were "good to go". The drive back home was another thrilling experience. Once a man is a intoxicated state, especially intoxicated on alcohol and has a wheel to handle, it brings out a real man in him. Its like experiencing freedom at its peak


Sunday morning
Time: approx 11 AM
Mood: Happy

A game of snooker to finish off the almost perfect week end. And thats where we headed next. Sunil was a beginer in the game, and I was giving him my professional tips ;-) . As I sat down looking at him playing his shots, improving every second, i just felt that something was missing. Something was incomplete and .... and my phone rang. With a smile i take the call, the call seemed to complete the puzzle of life. The voice of someone who you long to talk to all the time calls you at the time of bliss is like "a stariway to heaven"

Sunday evening
Time: approx 7 PM
Mood: Lonely and tripping

A train journey is always trippy. More so if you are stuffed at the door and are looking out into the fading light. Its just as if life passes you by and you are looking at it as if looking at a movie. The movie of your life. The movie I watched on this day had a happy ending. It was a happy happy week end alltogether.

Monday morning
Time 930 AM
Mood: Yaaaaawn!!!!
The week end is gone. Over. Just a perfect week end. Its monday morning. I have to get back to work. I cant beleive i have given up so much of a life in mysore to get up and head in the traffic towards work. UFFFFFF

Smoke on the Water... Fire in the skies

I wake up in the morning... after a long night.... Sleeply i walk out of my room to find the book "Company of women" with a pizza hut paper napkin used as a book mark. On the napkin, this is what i see...

DONT WAKE ME UP Teja. I'll get up before 1pm. Lock da door n let Kashi have da key & let him only open it for me bt 1. U might get a call from 98862*****. jus ignore. N now i me myself n machi going for last joint venture . . . .

C.U ......

- 4:53 am 9 oct 2006

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AFTERMATH:

Naanu yake bande illigeg?? Yake dope hodedae. .

Why Chit ! ?

- 5:15 am 9 oct 2006

i'm on star trip. Hope i'll see Jessica, Yasmeen, Sonu .,


MAY YOUR SOUL REST IN PEACE BUDDY!!!