Realisation...

Realising that one cannot have everything in life, but the realisation is more painful than fruitful! :-(

Happy! :-)

Just got the news of another friend cracking interviews and getting a GOD job! Here is the list for just 3-4 days-

3rd Dec:
Ajit -- Goldman Sachs
Cycle -- ATK (?), International Finance Corporation
Setia -- Google
Sangram -- Tower Research
Sushant -- Google, Goldman Sachs, Tower Research
Sudeep K -- Tower Research

4th Dec:
BJ -- Standard Chartered
Siva -- TVS Capital Funds, Yahoo

11th Dec:
Gera -- Deloitte
Munnu -- GE, American Bureau of Shipping

14th Dec:
Sudeep P -- IBM ISL, VMware



So happy for u guys! :-)

Recent songs i love...

Have gotten into the habit of listening to the same set of songs all through out the day. I wonder how i can be so patient listening to a playlist of only 8 songs playing whole day, day after day!
But anyway here are some of the songs i love to listen to and have been in my mind since last 1 week or so...

1. Aankhon mein teri....Om Shanti Om
2. Main agar kahoon....Om Shanti Om
3. Orange sky....appears sometime in Prison Break
4. Dilli...Delhi Heights
5. Gazab ka hai din... QSQT...All time favourite! :-)

CAT-a-log

The CAT season is over now, a long time back too infact, but my thoughts never cease to go back to D-Day. I remember the way Munnu ditched coming with us for his "reasons", i remember a frantic BJ leaving at 8 o clock for a 1030 exam, i remember the cursing Muski being made to go with BJ, i remember the exact time i woke up, i remember the call taxi driver, i remember the call taxi number and last, i remember the classroom in which i wrote the exam.

It was a very very shady place indeed. First, the door was behind us and we were NOT facing the blackboard. The blackboard was on my right side and we were staring at the wall in front of us! Dont know why they would arrange benches like that, as it didnt seem to give any significant space advantage. Next, the room was about 20 ft by 15 ft and had ONLY 1 tube light and 4 fans! It was a rainy day sortof and that didnt help the 2 windows meant for enlightening us to do their job well. It was really really dark in there. The way it is at about 6 o clock in IITM! Still, that apart that could be the room which i will remember for all my life! :-)

I remember every single CAT stud from the insti, i remember their ranks and their percentiles in several tests at IMS and TIME. I remember the fake id card on which i wrote 1 AIMCAT, i remember my exact marks in almost every exam i gave. I remember the scores of Varun, Kaushik, CB, Cycle, Suhail, Dhruv etc psyching me no end, i remember cursing several junta from wing for not preparing in spite of filling up the 1100 bucks form! I remember every single book i took from Arpit, i remember every single paper begged and borrowed from friends just so that i should not be the one who has not done something. I remember the day before D-Day, i remember Sangram, i remember Sushant, i remember my parents and every single person who wished me luck the day before. I remember telling some of them, how tense i am, i remember hiding from some of them how tense i am.

Its a pity that i dont remember the JEE day the way i remember CAT day. Im sad that i didnt write down that time whatever happened in those 1-2 days. Whatever be the result of CAT now, this post will remind me of everything that happened on that day, and i will remember it all my life!

All the best to all the CAT crackers and all the best to me too..

Arbitmax!

Have caught a crazy habit these days of watching Gult videos when i get bored! All i know about Gult is that there are two actresses named Shriya and Charmee (Dont even know if im spelling the names right!). Dont understand a word and still the sheer energy in the dance numbers is a nice experience! Especially liked some songs of Prabhas, Venkatesh (also can be found in some Hindi movies), Shriya (she has 2 songs with Aftab but i dont know from which movie) and Charmee...

Asin (supposedly a tam actress) also was there in some Gult movie and i think most of the Gult actors / actresses do act in Tam movies too. Siddharth (from RDB) is one such example which i can easily think of...

They all are going! :-(

Akram gone, Lara gone, Fleming gone, Inzi gone...

Have been wondering what cricket will be 3 years down the road. Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid no more going to be there. Its made worse when some cricketers whose performances i have loved and simply loved talk about retirement. Gilchrist has hinted at retirement after this season, and i think atleast 2-3 more Ausies wont play in another year or two, Ponting and Hayden maybe :-( Muralidharan, Jayasuriya are two more who stand out due to their performances who would soon be due to retire.

All this makes me go back to the day when Lance retired. The day when Schumi retired.

Difference here is its cricket and all i can feel is its a feeling much worse than anytime before.

F1 all the way!

This year's Formula 1 season was one of the most exciting seasons i have seen since the time i have been following F1. The battle of the 3 contenders was an amazing treat to watch all through out the season. Here are the cumulative points of each of the three drivers, Hamilton, Alonso and Kimi as the season progressed. Some interesting things come out from the points positions too!

The leader of the championship after each round has been highlighted.

Round GP Kimi Alonso Hamilton

1 Australia 10 8 6

2 Malaysia 16 18 14

3 Bahrain 22 22 22

4 Spain 22 28 30

5 Monaco 23 38 38

6 Canada 27 40 48

7 USA 32 48 58

8 France 42 50 64

9 Britain 52 58 70

10 Europe 52 68 70

11 Hungary 60 73 80

12 Turkey 68 79 84

13 Italy 74 89 92

14 Belgium 84 95 97

15 Japan 90 95 107

16 China 100 103 107

17 Brazil 110 109 109

I found the following observations quite interesting:

1. Number of Podiums of Kimi are 12, Alonso are 12 and Hamilton are also 12!!!

2. Number of Wins for Kimi are 6, Alonso are 4, Hamilton are also 4.

3. Minimum number of retirements, ONLY 1 for Alonso, are interestingly for the one who came 3^rd among the 3 drivers! :O Never knew reliability was bad! :P

4. In the races that a driver didn’t retire, he always scored a point.

5. If the equal points at the end of Bahrain are ignored saying there wasn’t a single leader, Kimi led the Championship only at the start and the finish of the season!!!

6. Kimi was seen to be behind the leader of the Championship (Hamilton) by 26 points at one point of time!!!

Something Sensible!

Writing something sensible after a long time. Have been attending this course called "Economics of Social Issues" and i cant stop falling in love with economics. Before this course, i had minimal amount of knowledge about economics (some fart they put in 9th and 10th if one remembers!). But i have been attending classes quite regularly and have been really interested in some of the things if not all, that are said and done in class. It is exciting how a theory based subject like economics can be made to look very practical once it is applied to some issues surrounding us. Here is a brief review of the course till date.

1.Started with description of types of economies. Went on to discuss the problems with transition. Case study of Estonia was done which was quite interesting although not generally applicable to all countries undergoing transition.

2. Then the standard demand, supply, PPF curves were discussed, effects of different situations on the movement of the curves etc was taken up.

3. With the basic background in place the course proceeded to its main objectives, discussing social issues related to economics. First issue was poverty. Growth, development etc were defined and discussions were held about the applicability of these to the issue of poverty. I think that the issue was not given sufficient coverage though.

4. Next issue taken up was Crime. Although the decisions about absolutely anything related to crime can be based on morality / immorality, it was quite surprising to see how economics can provide insight into some controversial topics like legalisation of drugs. The government machinery to be involved, its distribution etc can be quite well understood applying simple concepts of demand, supply, marginal social cost, marginal social benefit etc.
This issue was over discussed in the class according to me (or maybe the Shaastra break made it feel so!)

5. Pollution was the next choice of all of us unanimously to be taken up for discussion. Here a few more concepts like marginal private cost, marginal private benefits, externality etc were defined. Their relations with the corresponding parameters related to society seem to fall into place quite naturally! The problem of pollution was again discussed in detail without "sentiments". I found the applications of the MSB, MSC, MPB, MPC to the problem really really insightful.
2 mechanisms for controlling pollution were also taken up, taxes and pollution rights. Again, they seem so simple when supported with graphs of our usual familiar parameters.
A very good discussion on Carbon Credits Trading followed (which i slept through) and might have ended up screwing in the exam! :P

Overall, a very very interesting course, thanks to the group of students im learning with, as also Prof. Debashis Acharya. Hope the next issues going to be discussed are equally interesting and help me in my love affair! :-)

Update - DAMN!

Damn! The markets have crashed (Well, quite expected too! Still... ) And trading has been halted for an hour according to latest rediff update. 19K was something to remember though! :-)

Sleep is GOOD!

For the first time in, i dont know how many years, I slept for 13 hours at a stretch! No worries of the exams going on, no worries of missing grub, no worries of the phone ringing, and most importantly no worries of being woken up by my own guilt! :P

On a more serious note, I am still feeling sleepy and i dont know what is wrong with me! It has just been about 3 hours since i woke up after 13 hours, and out of those 3 hours i have slept again for 1!! Still feeling sleepy and i have no idea how to stop it! No classes in the morning and it feels like the whole world is so in favour of me sleeping again for a "while"! :D :D :D

A major change in life!

This post is dedicated to all those who are waiting for me online at night (atleast 2-3 are there! :P) but cant find me on Y!, Gtalk or MSN or all three. Recently i have been doing some thinking about life. Well that doesnt directly qualify as a reason of not being online, but indirectly it very much is. Here are some insights on the working of some of the lazier brains! :(

1. Life is very long. You need to stay healthy to enjoy most part of it.
2. Having adequate amounts of sleep is a key to good health, even if that makes you miss about 7 breakfasts a week and 3-4 other meals! :-(
3. Exercise is necessary for the body to work properly but rest is essential for the brain to work well.
4. A change in your college bag, cycle tyre, room lock, water bottle, spoons, clothes, soap, room setup, bed ;-) can only bring about good effects in your life.
5. Taking into consideration the above mentioned points, one may decide to change his lifestyle atleast once in a semester.
6. Some conclusions are:- a) Good Health = lots of sleep, so, sleep early and as much as you can.
b) Change of routine has to take into account point "a" above.

So here is the real reason, change of routine successfully achieved, I sleep VERY EARLY these days (about (11 + - 1) PM). I try to wake up early in the morning. I do manage to wake up early in the morning, but GOD only knows why i cant have breakfast on a single day!!! :(
The reason for today is clear though, writing a stupid blog post and sleeping immediately afterwards rather than spending energy going all the way to mess for breakfast!
zzzzzzzzzz

Im Back!

After a long long time i am back on this blog after a rather adventurous summer and the never ending month of August!

Hope i can keep it updated now on.

Shift to another one

Will be posting on the following blog for the summers... Enjoy and do leave your comments!

http://uknme.blogspot.com

6th Sem Over!!!

Have been waiting to write on the blog for a very very long time. Finally my last exam is over and i am free now! Free from this hectic and disappointing 6th sem overall. Will just try to recollect the main events of the sem and pack it for now...

1. Joined 1-2 days late in the sem.
2. Saarang came and the "happenings" @ Saarang.
3. Yet another valentine day spent alone! :P
4. Quiz 1 starts, goes on well (i thought so that time) and ends pretty fast.
5. Meanwhile Internship got finalised and it was time to start taking steps towards getting Visa done fast.
6. Went home for 4 days in 1st week of March.
7. Visa done by 15th March and a big big relief! UK trip ON! :)
8. 16th March.. The big fight day...or whatever you want to call it! Ditch..
9. Quiz 2 comes rushing through and the enthu has diminished even further.
10. The Worst mails to mom just after quiz 2. Time to wake up and do some thinking!!
11. Thinking goes on and April comes by.
12. Determination not to let it go in the last sem of importance.
13. Meeting a new person! What a discovery! Amazing time still..
14. Endsems come and assignment load increases quite a lot!
15. 21st April , last day of assignment submissions. submitted 3 assignments and 2 reports that day i think :D
16. 23rd April Endsem begins! NICE!
17. 23, 25, 26, 28, 30, 1st May!

Its the end of 6th sem and a wonderfully eventful but academically bad sem!

Time to change the thinking cap, go home tomorrow. Chill for 9 days and chill further in UK!

Hope i can write more often from now on!

Signing off...

This will be the last post before the endsem starts and ends. After endsem i think i wont have much time to actually write a post as i have to hurry back home. Some thoughts for the last post which are in my mind right now are...

Looking back at the sem, i can only vaguely remember myself at Saarang 2007. All i remember is the tranformation that has taken place in me and when it took place. Will never forget somethings like the calls with Sangram, Sonal, Aquila etc., 2 mails to mom and ofcourse, the CHEERFUL life i am having right now. Thanks to new friends and the old ones are always there! :)

On the academic front...
Targets achieved! However much work u give, we can and will do it. It seems very very peaceful too once u submit the assignments or the reports or after giving a 40 mins presentation. Given 1 month everything under the sun can be learnt and can be learnt well. Its good i had the hardest time with acads in this 6th sem, and its good i have changed myself a bit as the sem draws to a close. I have enthu to do well now. So unlike just 1 month back.

Thought for the day...
We dont get the time to enjoy the peak of the mountain. Its always the journey which is remembered more than the achievement. Its the journey of this 6th sem which i will remember too irrespective of the final outcome. :)

Signing off from the blog till atleast 1st May. Tata and Good luck to all the readers.

Abstract and Abstruse!

Following is the abstract for my intern. I cant understand more than 3 sentences at a stretch!!! Please put fundae if you know what it means! :(

Jet Noise from instability mode interactions

" Air travel continues to expand in volume and noise disturbance from
aircraft jet engines is a continuing issue for those living and working
near airports. Engine manufacturers have an excellent track record of
reducing the noise from engines, but further progress depends on better
understanding of the mechanisms of sound production. This project will
develop a recently-proposed idea that some of the most important noise may
come from nonlinear interactions between instability modes that propagate
along the jet. Previous research has only considered a linear mechanism,
with limited success for high speed jets. Since the instability modes
themselves can be efficiently computed with well-known techniques of
stability analysis, all the quadratic nonlinear interactions can in
principle be computed relatively quickly. This project will develop the
technique by coupling a base flow with the acoustic field via combination
of stability modes. A series of direct numerical simulations will be run
so that the technique can be evaluated for accuracy over a range of test
cases, including binary mode interactions, transition to turbulence and
fully turbulent cases where the effect of the nozzle lip can be included.
Published laboratory data will also be used for reference. The tests will
determine direction and frequency ranges in which the nonlinear
interaction mechanism is an important source of sound. Understanding this
mechanism should then allow other sources to be isolated. "

Generally..

A big burden off! Finished F slot assignment today early morning and almost done with the report now. 40 marks assignment is a big pain!
Agenda for coming few days
A slot: 2 assignments,
B slot: 1 HUGE assignment,
D slot: Dont know what is going on in class! :P
E slot: Know what is going on in class but cant understand it! :D
F slot: Going good! Hold on!
DP: Presentation day after tomorrow. Will start working tonight hopefully.
ESA: Made silly mistake in 6th quiz. Ditch. Will put fight for endsem

25 days to go...

Opportunity missed??

This has never left my thoughts since that day. It was just 1 day before the deadline that we got to see the circular about the opportunity. Needless to say, mind started wavering and immediately calculations were made as to is the money enough? Well it was enough. Then the question of "important" semester ahead came forth. Will i be missing this important semester at my institute and will i be missing on some of the important things that might happen in sixth sem. These thoughts were overwhelmingly strong that day and hence i decided to talk with my parents and Sangram, before taking my own decision.

Parents as always were very very supportive. They were ready for any financial commitment or anything apart from that too. But as always, the ultimate decision was left to me, which was indeed very nice of them. Then i spoke with Sangram on phone about the whole thing. He had been there for 2 months and was the best person to consult about the standard. Even the financial aspect was spoken about and both of us agreed that it is not much pain. In the end, it was just about going away in the most important semester or not going away. According to both Sangram and me, it was best to stay here. That night i slept in peace and had already decided that i am not going anywhere.

Next day at lunch there were these rumors of infinite junta competing for the 10 places at stake. Siva had decided to apply, Nikhil too. They were all there. Suddenly there was this terrible feeling that why the hell am i not going then?? I was confused like hell and decided to do some more thinking. I wanted to think what so many people had thought which i might not have!
One more day passed in this.

Next day, pretty cheerful about the decision i had come to at night, early morning at 9 i went to HOD and told him that i wanted to go. HOD just smiled and said, the Dean is finalising the list now, you are late!
I am late???!!! The deadline was not clearly mentioned anywhere in the circular which came to us. It was shown late to us and i did expect them to give us 2 days atleast to think! 2 days is not a lot!!! SHIT i am late???

I was totally psyched and i didnt know what to do. Never ever the thought of going and talking to the Dean crossed my mind. Never ever the thought of saying i needed more time to think to the people who mattered ever came to my mind. I was just standing there in aero office, all helpless! Sat down on the sofa outside HODs office for 5 minutes and thought about everything i could do. Came to the conclusion that i could have done nothing!

Then it was the usual comforting yourself when you have lost something. I thought about the things which i was thinking just 1 day back. Thought about that conversation with Sangram and the way i thought it was not worth going away from 6th sem at IITM.
I wonder even now as to why the hell did i take that 1 extra day. Why did i just not say "NO im not going" and stick to it. Why did i change my decision that night and went and spoke to HOD next morning. Why did i fall for it if i was sure i didnt want to go.

Was i sure in the first place? I dont think so. I think i just needed more time to decide and sadly that was what mattered in the end. The list got finalised. We had 1 guy from aero going there.

This was a brief account of what exactly happened in those 2 days. The days when the notice came that NUS (National University of Singapore) is taking exchange students for one semester. The criterion for selection was pretty obvious from the outset, CGPA. Mine being the highest in my department i was sure to go to NUS for 1 sem if i had applied...I DIDNT GET A CHANCE TO APPLY!!!
I didnt talk to the Dean that day which i should have. Forget talking, i didnt even think of anything like that!!! Where the hell does my brain go on important occasions!!!

Did i "just" miss a great opportunity? Oh and yes it still seems just a yesterdays thing.
I hate you GT for reminding me!! :(

Waiting...

It has almost been a month now. I have been waiting for something. Waiting for that one thing after which i will be so happy or else so sad. I dont know how it is going to be like, i dont know how it is going to shape up, but i do know that i am waiting. Waiting to tell everything that i have thought i will tell. Waiting to see if i can actually say all that. Waiting to listen, waiting to think, and yes, waiting to rethink.
Dont know when this wait will be over. All i hope is this wait is over soon. I dont want to wait and go through the same old routine of visiting orkut, then the blog and then again orkut again and again. I am tired of thinking about it and i dont want to think about it. I just hope this waiting period ends! I wish i had the right mindset to end this waiting business, but no i dont have it, i will just WAIT...

1st GRE exercise :P

My vocab has been letting me down whenever i want to write something. My english hasnt improved and is at the same place where it was in 9th std. But well, i dont care as i hate reading and one cannot start using words mugged from Barron's suddenly before even knowing their usage! I dont want to start reading and all anytime soon but this is something which might help us all! :P

Found this as a testimonial to one of my wing mates...
1st GRE exercise for those who havent taken it yet. MUG THE WORDS!!!

Gorgeous!!! Alluring!!! Attractive!!! Appealing!!! Sweet!!! Good-looking!!! Charming!!! Glamorous!!! Beautiful!!! Eye- catching!!! Smart!!! Striking!!! Fascinating!!! Beautiful!!! Seductive!!! Bubbly!!! Sparkling!!! Full of life!!! Dazzling!!! Shining!!! Vivacious!!! Energetic!!! Head turner!!! Seductive!!! Humorous!!! Smart!!! Witty!!! Funny!!! Stunning!!! Lovely!!! Superb!!! Exquisite!!! Fabulous!!! Excellent!!! Fantastic!!! Outstanding!!! Exceptional!!! Terrific!!! Wonderful!!! Glittering!!! Tempting!!! Persuasive!!! Influential!!! Credible!!! Likeable!!! Attention-grabbing!!! Impressive!!! Sparkling!!! Remarkable!!! Marvelous!!! Prominent!!! Pleasing!!! Extraordinary!!! Congenial!!! Friendly!!! Good-natured!!! Great!!! Amazing!!! Tremendous!!! Elegant!!! Fashionable!!! Well-groomed!!! Stylish!! Neat!!! Graceful!!!

Shya!!! I HATE ENGLISH!!!

Blog blog blog!

Have been quite busy these days and i think that is the only reason why i need to blog often too. :P
Last week has been a terrific one and i wish to write about it a bit...

Last week was marked by the quizes ending first of all. Then it was a full day of time pass and getting back to work. Have not slept for 4 nights in a row. Well, it was partly for assignments, partly for fart sessions, and the remaining for i dont know what!!!

There were these endless discussions for room allotment, the discussions turning quite hot, almost to the point of fighting and some leaving the wing too! Finally, all of us pulled it off with all 18 of us moving together next year. Its going to be really great time in 4th year with almost all of us ready to give up and have fun!

Then the never ending discussions and arguments about Sachin's future and stuff. Most of it totally unnecessary but still...

Have been alloted my 3rd choice in mess, with all my wingmates at a different mess. Myself have been at that mess for the last 3 months too. Anyways, the new mess seems good and i always go with friends at night to somewhere im not allowed to as the guys in that mess know me well already. A bit beimani, chalta hai... :P

Have been getting tense over the F slot assignment, then the A slot coming assignments, and have to find out about B slot. DP is finally over and im on cloud 9 that i dont have to submit any more of that Bull shit!
Just left with one presentation for DP and then the pain will be over for this sem. I HATE DP.

Then this week was marked by some really nice things between the long lost friends.
Spoke with Namu finally, and spoke well too! Was so nice to talk to her after, 6 mnths??!! :O
Then met Aquila after a long long time and she is fun!

Have been going out on walks almost every night with Siva and Cycle. Getting to know Cycle in a much different and simpler way! Its so much fun to hang out at odd hours of night at arbit places and just talk talk talk! Looking forward to more such fart sessions in the last month, well all of us like walking at night it seems!

The long awaited treat from Gera, Botter and Setia got over yesterday and i hope i can write down about the amazing treat sometime soon! Well, we havent paid CCD 500 bucks still i guess! :P More to come...

It has been a wonderful wonderful week overall thoguh with only some small hiccups , the always have to be ones! Well but who cares!

I love you wingies and i love my life with all the people who have been around this week!

TNR post :P

Yesterday was quite a normal day.

Woke up early according to Sunday standards, 8 AM compared to 1 PM every Sunday!! Did the much postponed Design Project work, then some mug puts for sometime. Then spoke with mom and sis for quite some time. Felt nice. Then grubbed. Then the totally useless wing discussion on room allotment. Then a quick nap and tea. Then mug puts for sometime. Meanwhile chatted with some old friends, had bath (hehe) and washed all the clothes waiting for their bath too. Evening Samosa Chat at Guru. After grub it was more wing discussions. Finally room allotment done, whole wing shifting together. 19 guys together!!! Actually, thats really nice! :) My room number is 256 next year.
Then CCD lukha, then DCH, then some farting here and there at 3 30 AM today :P
Then doing assignment now, kind of skeptical to write the code actually as i know either my algo is perfectly correct (yeyeyeye) or totally wrong (sadsadsadsad)...have i understood the problem really?! Dont know... ! Quite a long code its going to become from the looks of it. Just waiting to confirm from the prof and then might code actually.

Sleepy now, but have a class at 9. Cant wake up if i sleep :(
lets see...

Quite an arbit post i agree :P

Discipline required!

This is the 3rd post of the day but quite unlike the previous 2 (other 2 not public :P). I just think that i have got this sudden thrust to write on the blog. Cant find friends to talk online and i want to talk a lot right now! Anyways,

I think i have lost discipline in my life a bit.

SLEEP:
I cant control my sleep these days. Invariably have to put an alarm for atleast half an hour before required as i feel nice to just keep snoozing it off! That happens 3 times everyday for 9 mins each and i ultimately wake up right on time. But it feels nice that i do wake up when needed!
The infinite resistance which i can develop to sleeping is still there! Glad that i can control myself and stay awake for any number of hours at a stretch even now. But just the "i cant wake up once i sleep" is what is niggling me a bit today...


GRUB:
I dont seem to have discipline in this area as well. I dont have any enthu whatsoever to have breakfast in the morning as it give me extra 15 mins to cash in on sleep. I occasionally miss lunch in afti, mostly this happens on Tuesday afti. I have a class at 12 and then again at 2. It is really hot to come back all the way to mess at 1 and again go back within 15-20 mins. Atleast i claim so. Havent had lunch on Tuesday afti for i think 3 weeks.
Sometimes in the evening it so happens that i am dead tired and just prefer to sleep for an hour and this hour comes at 6 30 PM. Sleep that time and needless to say, cant get up till 8 30. Dont want to wake up till 8 30. End up missing grub that time.
Overall, i go for evening tea religiously everyday and have snacks that time. When i eat i eat a lot so its not such a worry i guess.
But i do want to improve the hit count at the mess...

BATH:
Dont want to make this one public but its less than once a day! :(

Mug puts:
I want to mug properly from tomorrow. After all its the last month of the sem and i want to do well in this sem. I want to. I want to.. only this constant telling myself is going to help me i guess! :P

Time pass / chatting / orkutting:
It is happening a lot and i seriously want to cut down on the time i have been spending since last 2-3 days. Its like the exam gets over and i have all the enthu in the world to talk with everyone in the world! I have to do some thinking on this front and seriously reduce orkutting. Chatting, well its less only, so not such a worry.

All in all, it seems like i need to read this post tomorrow again so that i can start getting back to work.

I feel with all my heart that I SHOULD BE BUSY ALL THE TIME, constantly have deadlines ahead of me, IF IM NOT BUSY I END UP WASTING THE TIME I GET.

DISCIPLINE!

DREAM...

Had this weird dream today morning at 9 30 when i was crashing for some 20 mins. I remember very clearly as to what i saw...

I had gone to a trek to Chandratal Lake some 200 kms from Manali (well this is actual).

Now i begin with the dream

After reaching the lake we met some localite there and he said that there are 5 lakes surrounding this lake. He pointed out 5 small hills around this lake and said u can see the lakes if u go atop any one of the hills.
Very very enthu about seeing 5 lakes in the middle of snow covered mountains, 3-4 from our group started climbing the hills. We reached on top in some 1 hour or so and then we were very very very surprised to see that indeed there were 5 lakes surrounding the Chandrataal...
But the scene was a lot different from what i had pictured. We were almost shocked to see what we saw. This is what we saw...

From the hill, looking in one direction we could see that the snow covered mountains just vanished somewhere. There was a landscape which would look like a typical "Pune" seen from top of our Tekdi!!!

Then there was bright sunshine and another direction had a scene which i had seen from Manas resort entrance looking down on the Manas lake, some 15 kms from my house in Pune!!!!
Seeing this in the middle of Himalayas was quite a surprise.

Looking in the third direction we saw Pakistan flag flying high on top of 1 distant hill and Indian flag just on the hill before it!

Then we went a little ahead a bit and were surprised to see a heli-pad in the middle of nowhere! I dont know what surrounded it and nothing other than that it was a heli-pad and even more weird, some indian airlines planes !

Then suddenly there was the Kumbharli Ghat which essntially joins Konkan to east side of it...
There were the same roads which i remember and the same vehicles and the same people i can recollect from my Kumbharli Ghat trip!BTW, i have gone to Kumbharli ONLY ONCE!!!!


Going a little further we could see an army jeep coming rigt from the middle of the hill we were standing on. Some kind of secret road! We were walking for the past 4 days to reach Chandrataal lake just because there are no approach roads, and there i saw a jeep coming right thru the mountain! Gave up kind of, but still wondered, what place is this!!!!!

Still wondering, but now on something else...What did the dream mean? What and why did i see Pune as seen from Tekdi and "THE SPOT" i am thinking of? Why did i see India and Pakistan flags?? Why did i see the Manas lake and the Manas lake resort??? Why did i see Kumbharli Ghat???? And lastly, why did i walk to reach such a place for 4 days and was told that there are no approach roads when i can see a jeep coming right through the mountain through a tunnel!!!

What did the dream mean?? Or just some weird max of the moments of my life???

Do these places signify the moments of my life, moments when i have been very very very happy and hence remember the spots exactly???

Tekdi spot surely does have a relation with extreme happiness (a place where i go everytime when i go on tekdi. the place where every relation seemed so strong!!!), Kumbharli does (Trip with all my closest of relatives), Manas does (First time i did Go-Karting, and im a crazy for driving person !!!), Was the helipad and the planes the scene which i might have seen first time i boarded a plane (well i was very small then, so cant recollect maybe)??? but why India and Pakistan flags??

Still Wondering! :)

An UNEXPECTEDLY EVENTFUL evening...

Yesterday was quite a boring day. Had to mug for Rocket Propulsion exam which was already looking a night mare! Open notes, Open book, Open ended too! Had read my notes once in the evening and kind of knew where what exists. No need to mug anything as it was all open...
Sat down to read again after grub but it was terribly boring. Could not resist orkutting all the while with my scraps increasing by atleast 20 ! (Well that takes usually a month to happen :P)

Anyways, so, terribly bored at 10 and nothing to do, thought of going to CCD for the much celebrated Spinach corn Sandwich. Siva had gone for CS treat so thought that he can join directly from Tiffany's. Cupper DITCHED me and said he cant come before 1. Cycle was desperate for Dosa at Tiffany's as he didnt have cash in his 450 bucks wallet! :D I didnt want to go there so DITCHED Cycle! :P
Went to Munnu's room and the normal picture came up. Utterly psyched with mug puts Munnu needed a break and agreed to come till Gurunath..
Went back and called Cycle.. And finally the 3 of us started for Gurunath.

Dont know why, Cycle managed to convince me to go to Tiffany's when we were just about to enter Guru. DITCHED Munnu and both of us turned towards Tiffany's! Didnt know what happened with Munnu after that! Thought he wud have been angry as he was already psyched! Chalta hai.. Gussa hoga aur bhool jaega! :P

Had a delicious Masala Dosa in Tiffany's. Cycle had his claimed to be "routine" Plain Dosa. But the reason was, he didnt have more than 10 bucks! :P
Met Siva there whos treat was almost getting over. Time for farting.. Farted in Tiffany's for a while and both of them convinced me to go to CCD now!!! I was just too despo for the Sandwich and hence agreed. Plus i had only 15 bucks in my pocket so, Bill was going to be paid by Siva! Added motivation! :P

Went to CCD, Sandwich was over. :(
Ordered cold chocolate. Chocolate is something i always fall for anytime of the day and however full i already am! So, had cold chocolate! It was awesome.. Felt satisfied :D

But the turn of events after this just made the early night memorable! We were already wondering if we wud see Munnu around the Girls hostel as it was Amandeeps's birthday! Ob he had to come there to wish his GF! Just as we were discussing this, saw Munnu and Gera too!!!
Some preparation was going on and instantly i could see, we were in for a treat! :D
Ob waiting a must for Birthday Cake! :P

Sang Happy Birthday for Aman. Gen some here and there talking, pulling each others legs and then it was even more ecstacy!
Gals from Sharav had got a BIG "chocolate" cake for Aman and very very obvious, i cudnt have resisted again! Sang Happy Birthday again with them, desperately waiting for the cake to be cut. Kirti wasted 1 piece of the 12 that were made by putting it on Aman's face! Sad Kirti!!! U wasted CHOCOLATE CAKE!!! x(

Out of the 12 pieces made, i ate 2 right then and there. Then there was Siva who didnt want to eat, so one more, and while leaving there was 1.5 more piece left. Put the half one in my mouth and took the last one in my hand to eat while going back! So it was 4.5 pieces!!! thats like almost half the cake!! GOD!! Chocolate cake Chocolate cake Chocolate cake!!!

Couldnt have asked for anything more on this highly unromantic evening in the middle of quiz 2...
Thanks Cycle for convincing me to go to Tiffany's and Thanks Cycle and Siva for convincing me to go to CCD. And most importantly, Thanks Munnu and all the Sharav Junta who Got such delicious Cake for me!!! hahaha...

MAJA AA GAYA!!! I want to eat more cake!!!!

Cake khane ke liye hum kahi bhi ja sakte hai
- Sameer.

Wing treat!

Wing treats @ 2nd wing Godav havent been quite a nice time for all us wingies. The reasons being, grossly unmanaged evenings and the lack of going to new places as someone or the other is always busy on any given day. Still, i feel proud that the wing has never ditched more than 3 people at max from a lot of 15-17 odd at every treat! Doing that consistently for 10 times or so is quite a job!

Anyway, todays treat was from Muski, Siva and me. The reasons being quite varied this time again unlike the usual Birthday treats. It was Muski's birthday, Siva's birthday and Intern in California and My generosity at pleasing the wing for every arbit reason on the earth, well apart from an intern in UK :P
I had been avoiding the treat for quite sometime i must say but finally even i knew i had to give it and it couldnt have come at a worse time!!!

Just yesterday India lost and is kind of out of the WC. More to it has been written in the post below this one. Was totally not in a mood to celebrate something and am still lamenting India's loss. Still the perseverance of Cycle and Co. forced me to agree to treat. Decisions were taken instantaneously after 7 O clock at night and we needed to leave early so that we could get back early and mug (all this is in the middle of quiz 2 remember! :D)

Started off from hostel quite late. BJ acting like he is pained, which he does almost regularly was the Bakra of the evening. Siva, Me and Cycle were going to go by bus to main gate and had no enthu what so ever in cycling all the way. Plus, we could chat about how nicely we are paining BJ! :)
Ishan and Setia joined us at Guru from a place where all of us were running away. Cant believe they had dinner for the sole reason that they have to cycle all the way till main gate! Dayaa max!
So, 5 of us in bus, while Gera, BJ (well that shud be Gera-BJ) , Floor, Botter and Munnu went on cycle. We reached main gate by 8 20 or so and were soon together.
Interesting things already happening with BJ in his routinely pained style "BARKING" out galis just as we got down from the bus! (C****,B*******,M*********) He had them all lined up nicely to sound like a poem! (Sorry BJ but u are the bakra in this post too)

Reached Sangeetha after the 450 bucks Wallet purchase by Cycle (well, 450 for a wallet!!!! I dont remember keeping that much cash in my wallet too!!!) Arpit and Muski had come on their bike 20 mins before us and had already been in queue so we got a place to sit almost instantly. But there were people missing. Munnu Gera and BJ were off somewhere. Later it was claimed that Munnu ran and got into a bus to Adyar main stop quite unnecessarily leaving Gera and BJ all alone! (well thats like heaven!!!) :D
Munnu did agree that he did something like that to go and purchase some concentrated sherbat bottle and pickles i guess.
So finally we were all 12 there.

Ordering was quite a mess and im glad it was done in groups unlike some other treats! It is much quicker this way! All of us stuck to normal Indian food with Roti, Naans, Kulchas, Cheese Kulchaas, Rumali rotis, Paneer naan and Alu naan (Thats one heck of a list!!!) and standard sabjis with it. Cycle the C*** has to do something different everytime and obly went for Southy food when everyone else was eating Norhty! :)
Cycles 1st order was something like "Kuzhi paniyaram"...(Appe in Marathi according to me)which was promptly finished off by Me, Siva, Setia and Muski. He ordered one more which was finished again almost instantly by Ishan, Munnu, Botter, BJ, Gera, Arpit and Floor. Cycle i think got a taste of the dish while all others ate considerable proportions! :D

There were photo sessions and video sessions too going around the table. And then the greatest thing of the day started! :)
BJ narrated his "OLD" "Sher aur Kutta" joke. This i dont know gave dirty enthu to some of us and the dirty/ non veg /low level jokes just kept coming! Cycle tried to change the mood by telling a "Jamalgota" joke which was quite naturally booed by Junta! The focus of today was SHER aka BJ :D
The level really dropped with my "Sher aur Gadha" joke and junta kind of gave up with Floors "Pagdi" wala joke! That was one hell of a joke!!! lol...
Still one could already see that the mood was nice, the foodwas tasty and the place was cozy and the time just about ideal for the iitians daily fart sessions to begin! :D

Had food, payed off an overestimated bill and left the place. We wanted to walk all the way to the Hostel... Thats something like 4 kms atleast i think. Still it was just what the doctor ordered for me! (DOCTOR, pun intended, those who get good, others dont think about it) :D

On the way back it was an irritating Setia constantly shouting and interrupting Cycles jokes with his TJs(Torturing jokes)! Muski told some school days Sardarji jokes in his standard MUSKI style. I dropped down one more level below with the Clinton - Vajpayee and Monica joke! And i dont remember when was the last time i enjoyed myself so much while telling NV jokes! It was simply awesome !!!
Then as we reached GC, there were some of us having enthu for CCD, but ultimately that was ditched. Ended up walking till Guru and surprisingly found it open (well almost closed). The time was ideal for yet another fart session to begin and 5 of us, Sva, me, Setia, Cycle and Muski sat down with a bottle of 2 ltr Pepsi between us. Farted there for some half an hour and then came back to hostel...
Oh yeah, there were also some hilarious kisse told by Muski about the perennially Jobless Mech junta!!! Too good!!! The double meaning, the double benches and the TTN, i remember it all! :)

All in all, the evening couldnt have been better and the time more amazing with all the wingies. Spent a lot again (well has become quite usual) but have no doubt that it was totally worth it!
You guys rock, We the wingmates rock!

Love you all guys! (Please no double meanings in this)

DEVASTATED!

Yesterday's loss against Sri Lanka has still not gone off my mind. I am still finding it painful to accept that I wont be able to see India in this World Cup again. In fact, I wont be able to see Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly ever in the World Cup probably.
Feeling terribly frustrated and yet have to accept that i cant think of it all the time. Have to accept that WE DIDN'T DESERVE TO WIN YESTERDAY. The way Sri Lanka played was simply awesome. Every single little step in the match seemed to be well planned. The way they fielded, the way they bowled was so heartening to see and yet so impossible to accept because India was batting.

India are to blame themselves more than anything else. With atleast 3 of the top batsmen in form throwing away their wickets at crucial moments in the match. Sachin's dismissal was one heck of a ball from Fernando and he couldnt have done much even though he is SACHIN.

The fate of our team still depends on the match between Bangladesh and Bermuda, but that is hardly a dependency to rely upon! Unless some miracle happens, INDIA IS OUT OF THE WORLD CUP. And sadly this miracle is not in our hands but in someone elses. We would have pulled of a miracle if it was necessary, but unfortunately 23rd March was not the day.

I don't know how much more restless i can get over the defeat and its not about the defeat too...
Its about seeing India with Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly ever again in World Cup!!! :-(

To sum it up i think i can draw 2 conclusions...

1. India is a hopeless team of the best individual talents in the world!

2. We cannot win a match without Sachin. He has to contribute with the bat if Team India has to even think of winning!!

Restless or what!

Its been quite sometime since i wrote about something related to me directly. As i sit down on this Wednesday afternoon wondering what should i write, i can only say that there are so many things about which i want to express my views upon. In fact, very very strong views, concerns, whatever one may call it.
Some of the things which are taking up my time when i sit down to study are,

Hell

What the hell is happening in Aero dept @ IITM
Why the hell don't i have enthu this sem.
Why the hell does everything come down to "does your grade card show that"
Why the hell do seniors look so so so comfortable!
Why the hell have i stopped exercising in the evening.
Why the hell is my cell phone balance reducing so fast!!! ( ;-) )
Why the hell is everyone around me so pretentious.
Why the hell cant i control my sleep these days.
Why the hell is there so much heat in Chennai.
Why the hell do i invariably miss grub at mess 3 times a week (exactly)
Why the hell isn't BTech of 3 years only.
Why the hell did Pakis lose!
Why the hell is life so unfair and yet you have nothing more to say that you get what you deserve!
Why the hell does it have to be YES or NO always!
Why the hell wont it be the same ever again even if you have the YES or NO whichever you wanted in the first place!
Why the hell...

Heaven

It feels so nice that the world seems to go around smoothly with or without me!
It feels so nice that everyone around me is so wonderful.
It feels so nice to sit idle in the middle of quiz 2 and write a post on the blog.
It feels so nice not to attend classes for 1-2 WHOLE days.
It feels so nice to wake up at 1 o clock in the afternoon on weekends.
It feels so nice to sit and think about the work i will be doing in summer.
It feels so nice that i am going to go away from the current "world" around me.
It feels so nice to talk with someone.
It feels so nice that how much ever i decide i will give up this sem, i know i wont!!! :D
It feels so nice to see India thrash a 400 + score
It feels so nice to see Ferrari and Kimi win.
It feels so nice that life moves on!
It feels so nice that life has to move on!
It feels so nice...

Overall, the utterly confused me as i always am, im restless about something yet confident about it and on top of it i don't know what this "it" is!
Just wish life goes on like this with so many worries yet so many moments to cherish and remember for all my life!

Reason for the title...

Just changed the title of my blog to "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar!"

One of the things which has been on my mind since many days is to write something about my views on winning and losing...well, no time right now, but i guess the title of the blog pretty much sums up my views.

Will just paste some lines from Kavika's orkut profile (Thanks Kavika)

If you think you're beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't;
If you'd like to win, but think, you can't
It's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you will lose, you're lost;
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow's will,
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are;
You got to think high to rise.
You got to hustle before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.

If you truly believe in something, it WILL happen...

Inspiration

Found this article in a magazine which i was recently reading. Really inspiring as the title suggests.
Don't know the author though...

Attitude determines Attitude

I woke up early today, excited over all i get to do before the clock strikes midnight. I have responsibilities to fulfill today. I am important. My job is to choose what kind of day i am going to have.

Today i can complain because the weather is rainy or i can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.

Today i can feel sad that i don't have more money or i can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and guide me away from waste.

Today i can grumble about my health or i can rejoice that i am alive.

Today i can lament over all that my parents didn't give me when i was growing up or i can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born.

Today i can cry because roses have thorns or i can celebrate that thorns have roses.

Today i can mourn my lack of friends or i can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.

Today i can whine because i have to go to work or i can shout for joy because i have a job to do.

Today i can complain because i have to go to school or eagerly open my mind and fill it with rich new tidbits of knowledge.

Today i can murmur dejectedly because i have to do housework or i can feel honored because the Lord has provided shelter to my mind, body and soul.

Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped. And here i am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping.

What today will be like is up to me. I get to choose what kind of day i will have!

Dont Quit...

Found this poem on the door of one of our professors, Prof Sujith. Asked him to mail me, he refused and said that i will appreciate it more if i write it down! Did that today... Here it goes

Don't Quit!

When things go wrong , as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but do not quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out,
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.


Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
Its when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Bliss!

:-) As far as i remember, i havent been so happy in last n days. Might seem to be a childish post, but i want to write this one with all my heart!

I have never been a champion swimmer or anything. Infact, pretty ordinary one who can manage to stay alive if dropped anywhere! Have been trying to improve on my stamina, not that it is less, still swimming stamina is a lot different according to me as i have had a bit of experience in long distance running too.

So, as of 5 days back, before Saarang started, my state was that i could swim about 700 mtrs at max in one session at the pool. That too something like 100*7. I desperately wanted to improve it as i couldnt see the point in swimming 700 mtrs if i stop 6 times in between for catching up my breath! BTW, for non swimmers, 100 mtrs is a lot! And for pro swimmers, 100 mtrs is Nothing! I was midway so i guess 100 was fine! But just the day before i stopped swimming for Saarang, i swam 200 mtrs in a go 3 times. Also, totally i swam something like 800 mtrs that day. Was kind of happy but not happy as i am today! :-)

Today, i entered the pool, swam the first 2 laps very very peacefully and stopped. Stopped why? Well goggles gave up and there was water all inside them! Stopped. took some deep breaths, some standard breathing fundaes which i have learnt over the days, generally removed ear plugs and put them back, all arbit things! Hehe.. Then it all began! I checked my goggles properly and began swimming. This time i was determined to swim 200 mtrs in one go atleast, where i had stopped just before Saarang.

200 was over in no time, I was not feeling anything! Not a bit of tiredness, no paining of arms, no pain in legs, nothing! I decided to go for 300! 300 done too! Quite easily!
Then i was wondering inside the pool as to, what it should feel like to do a 500 at one go. The number which always interests me! Reason, well it is the distance which you need to swim in IITM Triathlon before going for cycling and running. Quite naturally, i decided to go for 500 after 300 was seeming negligible!

Ta, tada, ta, tada, ta... well i dont know how it is for other swimmers but this is the way my breath comes out inside water if i put some random sylables to the outcoming sound of bubbles! :-))
So, there i was singing this for myself and enjoying every single breath! Ta, tada, ta, tada, ta! This is something like 2.5 seconds btw (just to get the tempo right while reading)!
So, i was just singing and enjoying and i was not ready to stop at all! I was not feeling tired, i was not losing my breath, i was not feeling any pain, nothing!

Lap after lap i kept swimming after the first 300 was over. After 600, somewhere near the end of 600 rather, i thought, well this i 12 laps in a go! I am doing great! I will do another 2 and stop maybe. In all this i had not seen the time at all!!! Was kind of intereted in that too now! :D
After 700 i decided, well 750 is a nice number! 1.5 times the triathlon distance! :-) But, again as i was completing 750, 15 laps, i realised im on the other side of the pool! As in, odd number of laps! Lets not keep it odd, 1 more! Yup, 800 done! ALL IN ONE GO! WITHOUT A SINGLE STOP! 800 mtrs = somewhere close to 480 breaths inside the pool at my pace and rythm! :-)

Was feeling so nice and not tired that i could have done n more laps easily. But i wanetd to see the time desperately! So, finally stopped (kind of against what i could have done more) I see the Big Clock outside the pool and SURPRISE! I was expecting smoething like 25 mins or something. I was about 1.5 mins inside 20!!!! (well if i saw it right!)
Wonderful feeling! :-)

Then it was the routine 2 more laps very very slowly just to cool down the body and i returned a very happy person to the small pool! Floated there looking at the sky for about 3 minutes. Thought about the things going on in my life. Things which are good, things which are bad, things which are arbit! Everything! Actually wanted to do some leg strokes for free style but put ended up putting fundaes on Back Stroke to 4 guys who were completely short of Fundaes! Tought them how to do leg strokes for back stroke and i think around 6 i decided to pack.

The walk back to the hostel never has been so satisfying, never so fast (while coming from swimming) and never so proud! Was litereally dying to write this all down! Will call someone now just to talk and tell this! :-)

Is this what is called perfect state of happiness?! Is this what is called being indifferent to something which has happened at 5 15 AM on the same day! Is this what is called BEING YOURSELF!!! :-) :-) :-)

Day Two, 23rd December.

So, after a nice and eventful first day of the trip i woke up the next morning at the time of our morning call at 5. Yes, 5 !!! Kesari Tours have this amazing way of organising things in the morning. They tell the previous night as to when they will be wakin us up in the morning and the timings thereafter are separated by 1 hour each. So, wake up call was at 5, breakfast at 6 and departure from Hotel at 7 this particular day. We had lots of things planned for that particular day and hence the early departure.

This was my first experience of a Breakfast in Foreign country and i must say it was nice too. There were something like 20 items on the table of which we could pick anything! Right from raw vegetables, salads to the very end like pineapple, orange juice running through a variety of like Fried rice, Chicken rolls etc etc etc. I must say these people did not seem to be much bothered by the wastage of food. Dont know why. Anyway, i was utterly confused as to what to eat and what not to eat. Finally ended up eating little bits of almost 13 varieties! Was really a filling experience :-)

We proceeded to our bus and the local guide, Aruni or "Tun", started giving us instructions as to what we were seeing around us and stuff. Was somewhere aroung 15 minutes ride to the place from where we were supposed to catch a Speed Boat to go right into the sea for Parasailing!

Speed Boat
I guess this was one of the star attractions for me for the day 2. We were already told that people above the age of 35 or so are not allowed to sit in front part of the speed boat as the boat ride was supposed to be quite a "jerky" one. It indeed was. Me and Manu cought the first 2 seats right at the front corner of the boat and it really was fun going at that speed for the first 2 minutes. But as we went away from the coast it turned into quite an "experience". The captain of the boat was proudly telling that the waters off the coast of Pattaya were quite rough and you can get a fair idea from what that dude is experiencing! Well, sadly enough, the dude was ME!!! I was completely flying out of my seat at occasions and landing hard back again only to be tossed up again due to the impact of the boat on water. As seen in the movies, speed boat indeed was about a foot or so above the surface of the water and it was literally bouncing to this height whenever it encountered a wave. Shortly after the ride began all my energies were concentrated on holding tight to the edge of the boat and i couldnt even take out my Digicam out from its puch to capture the wonderful Skyline of Pattaya city from the distance. All sitting at the back were laughing at the horrid time we were having at the front and i was determined not to let that affect me in the next 2 speed boat rides! I think i will stop here about the speed boat as it came to a halt near the parasailing site.

Parasailing!
This again was my first time at parasailing and i was the first one to stand in teh queue not able to resist the temptation of flying! Was given some ticket and something was written in Thai on my hand and i was standing right besides the parachute that was supposed to take me up. 2-3 strong looking Thai men held me tight and within no time i was strapped at my shoulders, chest, thighs etc with strong belts. They had the hooks which were directly going to be attached to the parachute. Ours was the first batch to arrive at that particular Parasailing spot and hence the parachute was quickly attached to my body and the boatman signalled Thumbs up! I noticed the speed of the speed boat he was in by looking at the fast decreasing length of the rope at my feet. Within no time i felt a violent jerk and off i went! It felt really amazing!!! After the jerk infact i didnt feel anything ODD going on with me. Was quickly into the air about a 50-70 feet from the surface of the sea and i was flying! They had showed me how to keep my hands on the ropes of the parachute to hold it just in case anything went wrong with the hooks. I was least bothered about it and proudly put out both my hands in Titanic pose. As i was the first one from our group to go up i could easily see others very vry excited and clicking photos and taking videos! Have quite a few on my comp too! :-D
Then within some 2-3 minutes it was time to land and again i didnt feel anything wrong going on. The boat steadily came to a halt exactly where it had started from and the parachute automatically came down nicely. The strong guys cought me instantly and i was literally hurried out of it. Then i saw that the next person in line was going to be tied to the same parachute immediately before it rested down. Again there were some Thumbs shown and off went the second guy!
I was then quitely out of the clowny looking straps i was wearing and it suddenly felt like my weight had reduced by about 10 Kgs!

I was next excited about the later part. Taking "profeessional" pics and videos of Manu and Aai as they were in line too. Baba was not too keen on the ride and was happily sitting and watching the fun.
I must mention 1 particular thing regarding Manu's parasailing. Her weight was too less and i think just to increase the weight, one more person from the attendants went up with her. The only difference was that he was just sitting on the ropes of the parachute without being tied or anything! Was a wonderful site to see this too! He was literally hanging with his hands when they came for landing and jumped onto the floor! Manu, the innocent one, very very excited after the ride didnt even know that one more person was sitting behind her! This somewhat diminished her enthu but nevrtheless she enjoyed it thoroughly.
Same with Mom too. She was short of words to descirbe the great Flying experience!

After parasailing we were given an option of either going for an "underwater walk" or to go and have fun on beach. The cost of the underwater walk was quite high though. Mom was saying i can go but i was anyway not interested in going down and seeing some arbit fishes or corals too. Just decided to pack it. Some 6-7 of us went ahead while most of the group was again "put" in another speed boat which took us to an arbit Island!

Arbit Island!
I seriously dont know why we were taken to that particular island as there was nothing there. Absolutely Nothing!!! Some childish boat rides like Scooter boat, Banana boat etc were the only things visible apart from a terrific density of people! I have nothing to write about this place as it was the most irritating part in the 10 days we spent aborad. I will just quickly thank the person who sold us a boiled Corn. It was awesome! Wish i had one more! :-D

From the arbit island after a wait for the people who had gone for underwater world we were again taken into a boat. This one was a slow moving one with glass as its floor. Quite easily one could guess what it was all about and the whole fun was lost for me. They took us to a calmer part of the sea and showed us some arbit max varieties of fish and corals. I hate both! Thankfully it was not more than 15-20 minutes of torture!
This time something new came up. They made us climb from that boat directly into the speed boat! Ladies wearing sarees had quite a bit of problem climbing up but ultimately they were fine. Again the 3rd speed boat ride began and this one was the longest one. This was right till the place where we had started from in the morning. This time i was determined to click some photos or videos in the speed boat and had taken out my camera before the ride began. Took some pics and videos of the approaching skyline of Pattaya as also the ride as such.

After about 20 minutes of flying around we boarded off the boat and said goodbye to this fabulous sea which was well and truely an unforgettable experience for all of us! It was even like a dream come true for Fatak Ajoba as he had always wanted to do parasailing. Guess what. He did it that day at the age of 69!!! Hats off!

Te ride back to the hotel was again one of the shorter ones of the tour and we were there at the hotel by about 11 30 or so. Then after about an hour all of us were neatly dressed in our formal clothes, unlike the "shorts+T shirts" in the morning, all set for lunch and then a visit to the Gems Galary!

Lunch was nice but again at the same restaurant we had it the previous day. After about a 30 minutes ride we were at the entrance of the Gems Galary. The programme was to first take a small tram ride which they arrange for everyone who visits to show how the Gems are explored and stuff. It was a disappointing ride with nothing being added to our knowledge about gems other than 2-3 new names of precious stones!
Then after te tram ride we were ushered in the factory, well they claimed it was a factory, but i dont think so! A female named Laura showed us around the place and the various operations like cutting, polishing etc etc that were going on. I was utterly bored but somehow the fact that we were next going to go to the Asia's biggest Gems Galary made me go ahead. After 10 more minutes we were in the Galary and i must say i have not seen anything like this before!!!

The Gems Galary was about 5 times the size of my hostel! There were all types of finished ornaments displayed there for sale! BTW, one interesting thing which happened here was that i didnt see a single Video camera looking at us. All were perfectly well hidden, needless to say why! Felt nice that i was proudly walking there with nothing more than 50 USD in my pocket! :-D
The prices were also very high of everything and we just decided to do window shopping there! We knew about the visit before but we had anyway not planned to purchase anything there so went about seeing all the items (Varieties) and were out after about 45 minutes.
After a complementary drink we went ahead to our bus.

The next thing coming was quite a big one! In the bus we were given an option of going for a Traditional Thai Massage or to go back to our hotel and roam on our own. We were there in Pattaya for the last 2 days and i must say that the maximum number of shops we saw were massage centres! This particular place is very famour for different types of massages they give. Foot massage, head massage, body massage, scientific massage, traditional thai massage etc all were there on the price list. We chose to get a scientific massage as it was adviced by our guide and was 1 hour in duration which quite well fitted in out tour schedule. So i was having in mind some massage like the ones i had seen in "Friends". Being made to sleep with all my clothes off and a nice female massaging me! Believe me this one was nothing like that! We were infact given a uniform for the massage!
The part that followed was an enjoyable one. The female nicely massaged almost every (accesible :-D) part of my body. Infact, 13 of us were there getting massaged together and we were seeing each other too during that time. It was nice to know that everyone was enjoying it. Anyway, i must tell the cost of this too. It was slightly on the higher side 300 Baht per hour. And 3 of us, Mom, Dad and me had the massage and ended up spending 900 Baht in 1 hour! Nevertheless, it was a good experience although i would not recommend it as it didnt seem worth 300 Baht.

From there we went to our hotel and then we were supposed to have 1 hour break until about 7 30. At 7 30 we all went walking for dinner and again it was nice indian food cooked specially for us. I also tasted some Thai food which i didnt like much, so the less said the better.
On our way back the previous day our guide had shown us a particular place called "Walking Street". As far as i remember he had told us that it is a place for shopping at night. Now, 2 of us, being the most active members of the group, Ankit and me, got interested to have some night adventures on our own!

Night adventure!
We came back to our hotel at about 9 30 or so, but Ankit and me were very interested to roam around a bit and obviously not sleep until 12 atleast. We took permission fom our parents, a little money with us and started walking towards walking street. What was to come totally was unexpected!
We had almost reached the place when we started noticing weird smells. Infact all kinds of animals were being cut in the kitchens of roadside restaurants for the night animals who were eagerly waiting for their dishes. From one point, we started seeing only Bars and nothing more. We just thought that this was some gully which was leading us to the walking street and kept walking. Soon the number of bars kept increasing and the crowd too as we went further ahead. The place was lively with Music, Christmas trees and foreigners richly spending on beer. We also waited at a particular bar to hear some band playing summer of 69. Ofcourse, outside the ar we were! :-D
Then we actually turned into walking street and to our wildest surprise ever we could see ourselves stranded in the middle of Dance Bars now! All sorts of females doing pole dances, lap dances and what not! Needless to say all the bars were overflowing with Drunk foreigners and we were feeling terrible to have come to such a place where we have nothing to do (Obviously!!!)
But Ankit was feeling nice about it after sometime! He actually said to me, dude im seeing such things for the first time. Only for his insisting we kept on going. There was not a single shop on the whole road other than Dance bars and prosti houses! There were females proudly standing outside them to welcome them in. There were some other male workers who were giving, almost making them read all the items on the price list! A guy cought me too and its better if i dont write what all was there for what prices! Terribly ashamed of myself we began our journey back and started noticing newer things now! We could see females dancing on 3rd floors in gallaries just to attract people and stuff. Again there was certain place where people were taking photographs of one female and she was quite easily posing for them in her scanty attire!
Anyway, we came out of the place within some 30 minutes and i must say i was very very relieved. Somehow going to such places without anyone knowing makes me feel guilty! I just came back to my hotel and told mom that we were very tired and there were nothing but dance bars there so we came back early. She didnt ask much and i guess she knew what had happened! hehe.. Anyway, gladly, the topic was closed.

And so also came to an end 1 more amazing day in our trip with me watching a Chelsea match in our hotel room. See you at Day 3, 24th December's wake up call. Good night! :-)

Day One, 22nd December.

So, we had just left Mumbai Airport on day zero, btw i call it day "zero" because according to our tour programme it was not part of our tour and our tour really started with departure at 11 50 PM on 21st December which was 22nd December for Kesari right from the start. Anyways, so we left and this was my first International Flight experience. Tried to compare with some Domestic flights i had flown by. Suddenly seats seemed to be slightly more spacious, people more decent and ofcourse Air hostesses YOUNGER! ;-)

I had heard about international travels from several friends saying it was boring and all that. Nothing too see for n hours and stuff. But i must say, i enjoyed every bit of it!
It was a really nice thing which Thai Airways projects on the main screen( I dont know if its the same in other airlines too). They were showing many technical parts of the flight. As in, altitude, temperature of surrounding air, ground speed, head/tail wind speed. It was nice to brush up the simple formulae i had learnt in my first year and actually check the Mach number and stuff from what i remembered about A 330-600. :-D Almost exact Mach number thats specified on any website and stuff. Felt great!

Soon we were served with drinks after about 20-30 minutes. Writing about this as there is a kissa which Dad claims is true although all 3 of us say he is just hiding what actually happened!
Mom, well, doesnt like to see dad drink and is generally very much against it even if its done when she is not seeing. And, i took orange juice, Manu took Apple juice and Mom took something like Sprite. On the seat ahead of us, Vaidya kaku had taken red wine! Mom was shocked and was almost staring at what and how and all that! And then all we noticed the next moment was a can of Singha Beer on dads table!!! Mom, obviously asked what is going on and dads claim was that he asked for 7 Up and the airhostess mistook it for Singha!! Hilarious.. still dad claims so. Meanwhile Mom had her say in the argument too. She said she heard dad saying 7 Up but he was pointing towards Singha beer can while saying it "purposely". So the battle still continues in our house as to the airhostess, well her name was Narintip, was right or wrong!
Anyway, i showed to mom perhaps what would have pacified her a bit. On the Singha beer can, a sentence saying 6% alcohol by volume. She just smiled at me. I gladly accepted it and quickly had 2 sips before she could even stop me. The great Beer tasting saga was over for me and i must say, I WILL NEVER DRINK SINGHA BEER IN MY LIFE! Hated the taste!

Then there were a few more things which i will just mention and not write in detail. I was awake all the flight and had read the magazine of Thai Airways almost so deeply that i can remember that the Channel schedule was on page 83 and duty free shop addresses were from pages 15 to 20!!! Manu had a hard time sleeping with she claiming that the seat and the backrest and all that was just too inappropriate for her "tiny" size. She even had plans of filling up the Thai complaints form!

Finally at 5:05 local time we arrived at Bangkok Airport and it was a hard time for some parents to wake up small small kids! First impression of the airport.. GODgiri. Had read about the new Bangkok "Suvarnabhumi" airport in Thai Airways magazine and that it had opened recently on 28th Sept 2006 and stuff. First thing i tried to look was the much takled about ATC tower which is the tallest ATC tower in the world. Found it ultimately after i left the airport :-)
Whole Airport was very brightly lit and there were 100's of counters at every place. "Travellators" was a first time experience for me and it was nice too! Looking at our own reflections in glasses alongside seeming like running and stuff was enjoyable. BTW, Bangkok International Airport has around 500 check in counters! That i guess gives an idea of the magnitude of the whole affair. I think we would have walked through about 1.5 kms on travellators and climbed up and down about 4 floors when we finally reached immigration counters.
Immigration first time for me was a kissa kind of! From what i know, and from what is followed actually too, we are required to give our passport, immigration form and if asked our boarding pass at the immigration counter. The dude sitting on the counter was a trainee and he asked me to produce my flight ticket!!! I was like, what the hell and managed to say "we are not supposed to show it right?" He gave m one sad look and i came to know he was not letting me in without it. Quietly left the counter and got back with the flight ticket which were in my moms purse and she had already cleared immigration and was on the other side, ofcourse without tickets. Then just felt for a moment that people are staring at me and stuff, well i still think thats imaginary too! hahaha.. Anyways, it was over and we had a half an hour break in which we were supposed to collect our luggage and freshn up for a 2 hour Bus journey from Bangkok Airport to Nong Nooch Village...

Then we all proceeded behind our guide to our bus and it was a really nice and comfortable one to travel in. All buses there meant for tourists were same. Nice ones and about 3 times more superior than a Neeta Volvo! Bangkok's first glimpses were too impressive. There were about a dozen flyovers near the airport and i did not feel surprised when the guide announced the next moment that Bangkok is called the Bridge City. There are 100s of them in the city and outskirts!

We were on our journey to Nong Nooch village and like every Indian would obviously do, i was aprreciating the cleanliness and the condition of the roads! Every single road was of the level of Pune-Mumbai expressway. No wonder we were going at speeds of about 110 kmph in that bus. Had a short stop for breakfast at Mc Donalds midway and reached Nong Nooch village sometime. well, i dont remember the time!

Was a beautiful place of about 600 acres and first thing that came to my mind was IITM is bigger than that! hehe.. still, Nong Nooch was a typical tourist spot with all the basic things which the tourists love to see. Huge lush green lawns, dozens of flower gardens, butterfly and bird parks as also eating spots!!
We were there to see a typical thai cultural show and i just kept my fingers crossed that the show should not be longer than half an hour! I just hate the word Cultural! For me, it is very hard to appreciate things lik cultural shows, adivasi dances, and ofcourse Modern art!
Anyway, the show was about half an hour length exactly and it was OK OK.. i obviously didnt appreciate the dances and acting but the sets on stage and also the costumes were just wonderful. It was dark in there and my camera battery almost got drained with the number of flashes i managed to click.
Next we went "quickly" to elephant show. Quickly - thats because many shows in Thailand are such that you get seats on first come basis. So as our guide had told, we almost ran to the elephant show to catch good seats. Managed to do so and i must say, Elephant show was the highlight of the first day!
Elephants doing almost all kinds of things. Right from a baby elephant to an old one. They played dart, football, basketball etc. Cycled around in the arena and gladly devoured almost anything that the crowd was feeding them. Highlight within the show for me was the paintings made by elephants during the show! They were just awesome. Purposely enough, they were done on plain white t shirts which were sold later in the crowd. I can remember everything that the elephants painted and wondered how they teach animals to do such things!
Then there was a rock and roll dance of the elephants which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. Then there were some idiotic things like the biggest elephant massaging the back of volunteers from the crowd with his leg and stuff! I hate such things. What if the elephant accidentally steps on me! hehe...

After the show we then went to botanical garden and then to our Bus. It was very hot by that time and we were glad to get inside the bus. After about 1 hour journey we reached our first overnight stay hotel. Hotel Central Pattaya, Pattaya. Was a kind of small place from the outside but a nice hotel from inside. Then we were having our first "rest" of the trip till about 7 o clock after we had lunch at about 2 in the afternoon. Needless to say i slept as did everyone.

Went for dinner with the group again and after dinner we were taken to the world famous Alcazar show. This was a total paisa wasool show as i would call it. Reason, well it was a slowish cabaret or whatever one chooses to call it! Again the sets, the backdrops and the costumes were just too awesome. Mom didnt appreciate them much as also the show but i guess you need to be age 30 or less to appreciate such things! As i can remember, i had said bhari dresses hote na tyanche and mom replying kay kapde re baba tyanche! hahaha...
Anyway i enjoyed every part of the show as it was individual + group dances alternately. When an individual performance would be going on the backstage people wold be arranging for the next group dance and the individual performer actually performing in front of a curtain! That was one thing i had never seen before and appreciated it very much. So much time is saved this way! The drink served during the show was also nice and i must say i came across the most weird shape of icecube, well not a cube. In my drink i found an elongated toroidal shaped ice piece which i tried to recollect whether i had read its name anywhere but no luck! It was just a more than weird shape!

After the show we were again taken back in our bus to the hotel and we were told that the wake up call next morning was going to be 5 30, breakfast 6 30 and departure 7 30. I was already scared! 5 30???

BTW there are so many more things to write about the entire day as the tourist buses have PA system in them. Almost throughout the entire time we spend in the bus the guide is constantly telling what we are seeing on our right and left sides. That was again a new experience for me and i must say i enjoyed this sight seeing more than any of the actual shows/places we were supposed to see.

I guess i will stop here with Day 1, 22nd December as it was time to say Good night to newly formed friends. :-)

To be continued in Day Two, 23rd December.

Day Zero, 21st December.

December of 2006 was perhaps the Best time i had with my family when we went to a trip of 10 days to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. This is almost the entire description of our trip which i think was best to write day by day.

So it begins...

The day started off perfectly i would say with something really nice happening on Yahoo messenger after 12 at night! Then i slept off sometime around 1 30 and woke up at around 8. We were supposed to leave Pune around 3 so there was just about enough time for me to sneak in to Nana's party at his house the same morning. I managed to leave home at around 12 45 but sadly as i had reached there and started talking with people a frantic sounding sis called me saying there was an accident on the expressway and now we were supposed to leave 1 hour early!
Please! I didnt even taste the chicken and had to leave saying Bye Bye to all my friends right away.
Came home and we left at around 2 15 for our bus to Airport from Kesari office in Pune.
Journey was nice and fast until the driver decided to turn into Ghatkopar instead of taking the bus to the Airport from the usual road which i knew. No wonder there was not an inch on the road available for pedestrians as it was 5 30 PM! Just didnt get the funda behind turning into Ghatkopar! I think we took about the same time to reach Airport from Ghatkopar as we took from Pune to Lonavala!

Reached airport around 6 30 or so and there already were Kesari people waiting there for us. They have this way of treating us like small kids. Guess what, they had even kept our passports with them as in some trip in the past people had come to airport and then realised they have forgotten their passports at home! Well, appreciate the care they are taking but kind of too much for me! hehe...

Then there was this so called "get together" of the Kesari people which was total flop according to me! I thought it would be something like we introduce ourselves with our fellow travellers for next 10 days and stuff. Turned out it was just snacks! No probs though as the snacks at the Celebrations restaurant at the airport were awesome! Wouldnt have asked for a better Veg Sandwich in my life! Ate up 3 i guess! Mine, Dad's and Mom's too!
BTW till now our "Tour leaders" had still not arrived. It was almost 8 o clock when they came and suddenly there was a group of crazy people around them getting intro and trying to make "first good impressions"!! Was totally ridiculous.

Kesari has this amazing knack of arranging their tours properly and i must say i cant give a better example than this. There were 105 people leaving with Kesari on 21st December to Bangkok! That was 3 batches in which ours was the one with 43 people total. But group booking for 105 people on 1 Thai Airways plane is somehow an unsurpassable record i guess!
I was thinking of all the nice time i will have "seeing" and "checking out" people( u know who!) in the plane and suddenly it was 105 people whom i had already seen! Not to mention the dejection!

Anyway, we were given the "important" instructions and order in which things were to be done on which Kesari had already wasted lot of paper at the time of booking too. But i guess when you are bound for international destinations we need lots of TP due to the long waiting involved. So, we "all" followed the noble path and cleared check in! Hehe... Ofcourse there were some problems with the security check when 105 people were there! Some had forgotten to take out their liquids out of the hand baggage which is quite seriously checked these days at Mumbai Airport. So, there were some Face wash, shampoo and mineral water bottles confiscated straigtaway.

Anyway, everything was over by around 10 45 or so and we were in the waiting hall just outside the Gate from which our plane was leaving by then. So there was still 1 hour left. Didnt know anyone of the 105 people and i thought that would be a nice time to atleast get introduced to some of the 43 travelling with me. Started off with 2 ajobas, ages 69 and 74. That was amazing! Then looked again at the list and found out that the youngest member was a 5 year old girl! I must say, India is a diverse country! :-)

Finally the wait was over and the gates were opened. There was a line of business class people first and then a never ending line of economy class. I think they were either just too eager to sleep off or else see plane for the first time from inside! Anyway, boarded the plane and somehow studying in aerospace engineering makes you look at so called "unnecessary" things first!

Took out the safety manual and checked the Model of the plane. Airbus A 330-600. Felt nice that i kind of remembered its dimensions which i had come to know sometime, i dont know why! Then automatically its the wing thats the next target. Tried to re re re re revise the "parts of an airplane" diagram which i might have seen about 10 times atleast by now! Nice it is to actually see it again. The plane was 2*4*2 seating arrangement and we got the middle 4 seats being a family of 4. Sad!

I guess i will stop now as anyway the flight took off well and stuff and also it was 12 midnight in 5 minutes too. So, to be continued in Day 1, 22nd December. :-)