Songs!

Got some new songs into my play list.. Well, not all of 'em are new. Some are classic ones :)

1. Is Pyar Se Meri Taraf Na Dekho (Chamatkaar) - Romance in the air :)
2. Mujhe Milo Wahaan (Ada...Way of Life) - Thats the familiar Jayachandran + Alka Yagnik !
3. Zara Se (Jannat) - KK rocks!
4. Maine Hawa Ke Paron Pe (Mere Baap Pehle Aap) - Movie sucks. But this song is kinda okay.

And of course, always in the list is... Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna :'(

Add this to the list too...

6. Jaaniyeeeeeee (Summer2007) - A new singer! Is that Kavitha Krishnamurthy Subramaniam's daughter?! Sounds strikingly similar to Kavitha Krishnamurthy's voice :)

Lost...

I was lost in all the happenings around me..
(That should sound a positive statement!)

More than a week away from the blogger community..
What was going on? Here is the answer:

1. Munnar Escapade! Took the entire h/w team to God's Own Country. To Munnar! Boy, it was one helluva trip. And ppl are in love with Kerala :-) The second consecutive year, that we (Brad and Rat) succesfully organized an all-official trip...

2. Movie Time! Well, after having organized a mega event at office (this is not the tour, this one is on a larger scale. The entire BU, you see!), the organizing committee decided to cool off. And we opted for PVR, ruling out Wonderla, due to the distance and want of time. A flop movie, alright (Mere Baap Pehle Aap), but thoroughly enjoyed the outing, the lunch and the howling and booing in the screen :)

3. A95 Gone again :(
In within a year of the CCD-problem correction, pops up this new bug. The camera wont adjust the shutter speed in accordance with the light level - leading to dull and dark images even in broad daylight. The service centre morons took the camera into their test centre, took 2-3 photos with flash on and came back saying, its working perfectly fine! I had to fight with them for 5-10mins before they even agreed to take another look into the cam. They will send it to Delhi, for an electronic inspection. By all chances, it wil come back with a message "Camera has no problem". Anyways, the cam had been used to its extreme. With more than 20k photos+videos together taken out of it, in a span of just 2.5 years, and having travelled to all fancy places in adverse climatic conditions, I should pat on its back and say "Good Job". But I terribly miss my cam :( And spent a day in office listening to the title track of KANK.

4. Big trips planned, but nothing taking off. Coz guyz are busy doing shuttle service to home. (Even I'm going home the weekend after the next) :D

5. Bday treat this Saturday ! Kaustubh turned 4 :P

Over n out!

Munnar Falls !

Valara Falls:

Cheeyappara Falls:

Munnar Escapade is On !

And by 5 in the eve, we are gone !

A team of 24 odd are leaving today for Munnar, to gauge the rainfall received in that part of the world (The news from ground zero is that its pouring heavily)

It would be a smart thing to take a helmet along... A space suit would be the best thing, though. To protect myself from rain is one thing. But to protect me from kicks and blows is the primary reason :-S

The plan on paper is simple:
1. Leave from Blr @ 4PM
2. Land in Aluva at 3.30AM
3. Off to Munnar in a chartered bus. Reach Munnar by 11AM
4. Out roaming by 1PM
5. Back in rooms by 8PM
6. Camp Fire, games, sleep

Day2:
1. Up at 5, check out by 6 (these are interesting numbers)
2. Roam around till 11.
3. Start back to station by around 1PM
4. Reach station by 5.30PM
5. Get into train at 6PM

Boyy its a packed schedule !
And with 24 guyz (they will have 124 opinions and suggestions of their own), time management would be the key. As far as rain is concerned, who cares. If it rains, we'll do a 'Tip Tip Barsa Paani' :-))

Lumbini Park Expedition

Post the US-return treat at Magnolia, Koramangala I Block, it was 4pm when we started back our long (1km) trip back home on 4 bikes. Waiting at the signal, everyone remarked in one voice "What a nice climate". And one voice outcast the rest "Lets go to Nandi Hills". And soon, the rest of the gang joined the plan. Hit home by 4.45PM. Aasish left for home saying "brb" and came back with his Swift. Well, not a real good idea, to go by car. But then, he wants to go on a long trip. So no one objected. Started by 5PM. And one hour into the trip and we found we are nowhere near our destination. So a sudden change of plan, and we landed into Lumbini Park.

This, in fact, is our second visit to the place. Last time, it was an all guy gang of 4. This time double the number. And all-but-one guy-gang. Pretz joined us this time.

30 bucks entry fee! Phew! And an extra 30 bucks for camera. Too much (for a 2nd visit) :-)
So we saved the camera 'entry-fee', by 'stealing' it in :-P

We had missed boating last time. So this time, headed straight into the boating area. 4 pedal boats. 30 rupees per head is the ticket. For 20 minutes. A pedal boat comes to you at a 40 rupee deposit (perhaps to ensure an on-time return of boats!)

There are a few rules, that we learnt while on boat. (Rules that we should have been aware, even before getting into one!)
1. You shouldnt try hit-and-go. Human beings aint amphibians, you see :-)
2. These boats are better operated in seated position :-S
3. When it rains, you get wet !! (That was the best learning of all !!)
4. The speed of the boat doesnt have a direct relation with the speed at which you pedal. Its all in the rhythm.
5. The boat is usualy for 2 ppl. But if you have a child below 0Kg, then its okay to hav him/her seated too :-S


Having learnt all the rules, and going through an on-the-job training, it wasnt long when we got a call from the base - to get back. Running out of time, you see!

Back to base. Collected safety deposit. And off to an evening walk.

Gasper made an attempt to try a few PJ's of his standard, and we was taken airborne in an attempted effort to nose-land him into the water below... Suddenly we realised that we were inviting a lot of attention from the fella-visitors :-P

The rest of the evening was spent taking profile-pics one after the other in the same frame, in the same spot, in the same background. (And profile-pics are already on air :D )

When light faded, and when there was no one left out to take a profile pic of, we called it quits and left to Pluto. Back home by 9PM. Wondering what would have been our fate, had we decided on to stay on to our original plan (of Nandi!)

Tail:
1. Magnolia is a good place alright. But its expensive! Think of a number between 400 and 500 for per-head expense !
2. Rain did not play much of spoilsport. We just got a slight blessing type drizzling while on boat.
3. The plan of all of us going to drop Pretz to Mlswrm dint really kick-off, coz after a few mins into the return trip, we found all of us split into 3 different directions :-D
4. Voila! There is a new fly-over constructed near Windsor Manor. What a dirty construction!
5. The race course road (in front of Le Meridien) now looks majestic! New lanes added, flat re-tarred road, with rhythmic white lines running over it. Beautiful!

Munnar Escapade

After the highly successful "Tour De Kodai", this time its "Munnar Escapade" - HW team on tour! It was a tough ask to get an apt name for this adventure trip. Options tried included "Morons to Munnar" and the likes. But dint suit a professional setup. Hence resorted to Synonyms in MS-Word and the name was fixed :-)

As last time, this one is going to be be the same organizing committee (code-named Escapadians). Hope none of the committee fellas 'Escape' to make the name true :-S And challenges remain the same - Will it rain? Will we be able to cover all the spots in time? Will we be able to setup a camp fire? And since the place is in God's Own Country, need to watch out for God's Own Celebration nick-named 'hartal'. (For the record, it was hartal in Munnar for the past two days - one of 'em to celebrate the petrol price hike) :-D These are a bunch of fun-loving (read hartal-loving) ppl!!!

Yet another challenge is a critical project, which might very well lead to a postponed trip (or even a cancelled one) :-D

Whatever it is, the Escapadians do not seem to care. They are on the go !

OPT : Bhoothnath - A Review

If we asked "Where are the horses" after watching the movie Race, this movie evoked this question "Where is the ice cream" :-S

A bhooth, his newly made friend - a kid, the kid's mom Juhi, and his dad SRK. That sums up the characters of the movie. The constant kicks and cries of guyz to the left and right kept each of us awake. There werent much of ppl to howl or to throw chairs around. The theater was reasonably crowded by the presence of 8 souls (barring us). And when Sowji went up to the counter to ask "Bhoothnath. Are tickets available", that fella gave him a STARE ! Should have guessed what that meant, even before booking the tickets.

But then the time spent inside the theater was enjoyable. Some dialogues off-screen:
1. Ethu ($*()$_)()_ paranjittaa ee padam kaanaan vanney ?
2. Ee bhootham full time dance um paattum aanallo..
3. Juhi kaanaan kollaam :)
4. (A senti scene comes...) "Ippo bhoothathinte vaka oru dappaamkuthu kaanaam"
5. Sowji - "Ithu mikavarum To Be Continued ennu paranju nirthum" And that happened!

While we were not talking , shouting , laughing (not to some 'joke' on screen) we had other time pass. To see if the chair is detachable, Check the floor spacing for sleeping using Bin as a test resource, Check whether the movie would be any better if watched with helmets on...

Well, nothing in the movie is worth a mention.
So here is the verdict:
Rating: Dont Go!!!!!!!!!
(Must Watch/Average/Dont Go)

Tail:
1. The OPT-ians were at their cautious best, riding their machines at sub 60kmph - quite abnormal of them! And the autos and luna's passed by happily ahead..
2. To save petrol, we switched off the bikes near the gate of our compound and got our bikes to the parking in neutral :-D (Petrol price is hiked by 5 rupees, you see!)

On Stage ! (And still alive)

The show went super good. Neatly arranged (After all who is behind the show!!?!) ;-)
Couldnt get into water or go for bowling.. And couldnt see any of the events on stage :-(
(as expected)

But we are offered a special day off to go out and freak out in WonderLa ! Ooh La La !

A coupla highly edited and deliberately-blurred images :-)