We spotted a tiger!!!

Last week we thought of relieving our stress and hence planned to go to Bandipur. We initially thought of going to Kabini, but later dismissed the idea and booked for Bandipur Safari Lodge. This is owned and maintained by the Government of Karnataka. This place is around 225 Kms from Bangalore and around 80 Kms from Mysore. Since there is no bus from Mysore to this place, we planned the whole trip with a taxi.

It was friday and the day for us to leave to Bandipur. The taxi came almost an hour late, which made us more apprehensive of not being able to beat the morning traffic of Bangalore. Thankfully, Thanks to Mr. Ashoke Kheni, the NICE road took as just 45 mins later to our time of our check-in. The check-in is at 12:00 Noon and we were to check-out next day by 11:00 AM.

Reaching the place was not at all difficult. Our driver knew in and out of Mysore and there are sign boards from quite a distance to Bandipur Safari Lodge. The way to the place itself is so much full of greenery.. that I took back the title of Garden City from Bangaluru and gave it to Mysore. But yeah.. seeing is believing.. the nature is breathtaking…

Much contrary to my notions of Government owned and maintained buildings, this resort was very well maintained. Truly amidst nature it was. We had booked Special Suite, but believe me everything there was really special. The lawn was periodically moved looked like with the suites fenced by shrubs. The Special Suite opened into a beautiful balcony which again headed towards Nature. The Suite interiors also well suited the place. I felt this place was much much better than Kabini. A wonderful experience so much so that we didnt feel like coming back the next day.

The evening of our first day there, we were taken to a Safari. We were accompanied by a joyful family(I guess from North India) and we kept going into the forest in a jeep. The jeep was not an open jeep, with some rexin kind of a cloth held using welcrove. We were welcomed by deers, peahens, kingfishers, etc…

After around an hour of drive deep into the forest, we suddenly stopped. Thanks to good observing skills of our driver, we saw some animal hiding behind the bushes. We removed the covering of the jeep and stood high so that we could spot it. We could see the tiger behind the bushes staring at us . We could see its huge face drawn away from us and walking back majestically. Unfortunately we couldn’t inform others of our discovery and moved on. We later came to know that a tiger was crossing the main road and stood by the side of it for nearly half an hour.

At the end of day 1, we were shown a video on wild dogs shot by Krupakaran, and he was supposedly captured by Veerappan during this shot, where Veerappan mistook him for a spy. After a day or two, when Veerappan realized that he actually was a wild life photographer, he actually helped him shoot the documentary by making sounds of wild dogs to call others, etc…

There are around 110 tigers in Bandipur alone. During winter, its gets a bit tougher to spot them due to the lush greenery that would have grown to our heights. But during summer, there are times when people have spotted like 5-6 tigers in just one safari.

With these facts galore, we set for the next day’s morning safari ditching the nature walk organized by the Lodge proprietors. The next day, we were accompanied by an old couple from Andhra Pradesh, who constantly were talking either about their relatives or about something I could barely understand. I had no problems with their constant chit-chat had we not gone for safari. Again, the small family in the front seat(the head of the family) spotted a tiger crossing the road and we stopped to watch. But thanks to the noise made, the tiger walked away briskly without even a hint of its existence. We then showed the couple the footsteps of tiger and that we should keep silent so to spot it again. We tried to go back to the water patch where the driver expected it to go but in vain. It was just a small glimpse of the tiger.

With this, our stay there actually made sense, both for spotting the tigers as well as spending some quality time in the serene and pure atmosphere which we barely get amidst the metropolitan cities. It was time for us to pack up and none of us was in any mood to leave the place.

From there, we paid visit to an old friend in Mysore, had lunch at Ruchi, the Prince. Food was tasty there. Nice ambience to add to it and some swans in a not-so-neatly managed pond.

Getting back to Bangalore was not a nice feeling, but the fact that we still had a day’s holiday to tune ourselves to get back to office was good. And now, here we go.. with the routine J

Our Austrian Trip

I think this was one of the very awaited trips for us. But unfortunately we didn’t get much time to plan it since last weekend’s plan was for Swiss. The cancellation of Swiss plan due to unavailability of rooms resulted in our Austria trip. However, it was not a poor planning though. We took a lead from one of our friends here to book a room first. We took a room in Pension Elizabeth for two nights, which costed around 72 € per night including breakfast, which is definitely expensive. We then took our tickets and timetable from Fahrkarten, i.e., ticket vending machine here in Stuttgart. We were to leave on Friday and get back on Sunday.

Our plan was to go to Bodensee on Friday and leave to Salzburg(Austria) that evening. So, we took a Bayern ticket which is valid for the Bayern area starting from Ulm till Salzburg and a ticket from our place to Ulm, since we were starting to Ulm before 9:00 in the morning and BW ticket(for Baden-Württemberg state where Stuttgart is) is valid from 9:00 onwards. So we went to Plochingen and took the Regional Bahn to Ulm. From Ulm, we left to Lindau, another bank of Lake Constanz, i.e., Bodensee. Remember, Ulm-Memmingen-Lindau falls in BW, whereas Ulm-Kempton-Lindau falls in Bayern area. So if you are taking a train with the route as Ulm-Memmingen-Lindau, then better buy a BW ticket.

As per plan, we went to Lindau. It was beautiful. The lake was not looking like lake at all, but was more like a sea. We could see water till our vision ended. We could also see the Swiss Alps from there, the snow-capped mountains, at the foot of which, the lake was originating. It was breath-taking to see this scenary. Since Lindau is less common than FriedrichSchafen to visit Bodensee, the crowd was not much. In fact we were the only Indians out there. We took a 1-hr cruise throughout the lake, taking pics everywhere.

There are many stalls at the shores for food/ice-creams/beer. We took a veg pizza (yeah that was available) and a banana ice-cream and both were yummy. After that we took a stroll around and started to Salzburg. We had a connecting train to Salzburg from München. So, Lindau-München and München to Salzburg. (München is Munich FYI.. it confused us also initially..)

From München to Salzburg, the train was over-crowded. München is the capital of Bavaria(Bayern state) and is Germany’s economic center for technology. Very heavily crowded, just like Bangalore. München is so unlike the rest of Germany. We were pretty hungry by then and badly wanted something to eat. Somehow we managed to go till Salzburg. It was around 8:00 PM when we reached Salzburg.

As soon as you get down the gleis(platform in Deutsche), you will see hordings of Burger-King. We just followed the directions and reached Burger-King. Thank God that we could find a Veggie King there and took a meal and ate like we were hungry for a week. We then took out the map of Salzburg, located the street where our hotel was and walked towards it.

The hotel was good, though amidst a busy street, the room inside was not affected by it. It was not a big room, (am sure for the money we paid there we can get to stay in Taj in India) but a simple and good one that fit our needs. A TV, a WC(washroom) attached with a bathroom and a twin bed. The hotel had a dining hall adjacent to the reception which was big enough to cater to its hausguests(checked-in guests).

We made a plan for the next day. We wanted to go to ice caves and salt mines on our way back. Ice caves are open only between May and October. And for all those who want to take a day ticket to Salzburg city and roam around, please do not do so.. If you plan to stay there for more than 2 days, you can definitely roam around the city. Otherwise, Ice caves is a must see and the day ticket wont work here since it does not fall in zone S.

We took a ticket to Werfen to go to Ice caves(Eisriesenwelt). Here is how it goes.. You need to go to Werfen by train. From there go to the information center, the i icon which you will see as soon as you come out of the station. There you can ask for a printout of a map to get to ice caves. Follow the map. You need to get to a bus station which is a little ahead of the station. From there, take a bus to the office where you buy your tickets to the Ice caves. The tickets to the bus need to bought in the bus itself. You may also decide not to take the bus, I would personally suggest to take it, since it’s a long way to the office. As soon as u get down the bus, you can see the name: Eisriesenwelt at the entrance to the office. We took the tickets for Cable car + Ice caves, around 19 € for each. You may also decide not to take the Cable car and trek to the Ice caves.

From the office you need to walk like 20 mins to reach the Snack hut, from where a cable car will take you to a mountain restaurant. From the mountain restaurant, its another 20 mins walk to the entrance to the Ice caves. It is really tiring. But on your left you will see the beautiful scenary of mountains and trees.. I could see the mountain peak at my eye-level. As you ascend towards the top, (ice caves are at the top) you realize that humans are so small in front of Nature. You realize the power of nature and you simply surrender to her.

We reached the entrance to the Ice caves, which was already chilling cold. There were guides, one of which led our group of around 50. We have to climb 700 steps up and 700 steps down in the Ice cave as part of the tour. The guide gave us lanterns coz there is no light inside. We entered the Ice cave and vow… what a beauty.. You see Ice castles, Ice walls.. Its really worth seeing it.. for the lifetime. It’s the beauty you cant capture in the camera. Amazing… I have no words to describe this sizzling and marvelous manifestation of Mother Nature. The Ice caves are formed due to cold air locked in the rocks during winter. During Spring, the snow from the mountains melts down, but due to the Ice cold rocks, the melt snow turns to Ice. Hats off to the person who first found this. Since 1920, there have been tours to this Ice cave it seems. A fighter from Salzburg had requested to bury his body in this cave when he was shot in World War I at the age of 27. You can see his grave there. You can get more information about the caves themselves and how to reach there in short here: http://www.eisriesenwelt.at/site/content/CB_ContentShow.php?coType=home.

After the tour, we started back. At first we walked to the mountain restaurant, had some roasted potatoes, then descended through the cable car down to the Snack Hut, and then again a walk of 20 mins to the office and then to the bus. The bus took us to the Werfen station directly. The driver announced that there is a train to Salzburg Hbf in 1.5 mins. We rushed, took the train and proceeded to Salzburg. We were damn tired and decided not to go to salt mines. Also, the salt mines were closed by then.

In the train, we met a few Indians and they told us that Gmunden is a very beautiful place and we could check it out. So we planned for that instead of Eagle’s nest/Konigsee.

Next day, we woke up at 7:45 and were at the breakfast table by 8:45. We checked out the hotel, had breakfast, and went to Salzburg Hbf. From there, we took a ticket to Gmunden. We had to change the train in between.. Salzburg Hbf -> Attnang Puchleim and then Attnang Puchleim -> Gmunden. Again we went out of the station and there was a bus. The bus took us to Traunsee. Another beautiful lake with mountains all over. Excellent scenic beauty. This time, we took a motor boat and cruised ourselves.

On our way to Traunsee from the Gmunden station and back, we met an old man, an Austrian, who had visited India around 30 times by virtue of being a trip organizer. He asked if I was a model and my husband was a designer.. We laughed and said we are engineers… Anyways.. he was very impressed with India and said Kashmir, Leh Ladakh and Jai Salmer were his favourite places.. none of which I have seen.. He also said that Goa doesnt impress him since it is like Europe in India and is very unlike India. While taking leave he gave his best wishes to India.. Nice person.

At 12:00 in the noon, we started back to Salzburg. We had our burger in Burger-King and took our train to Stuttgart after that.

We made a lot of friends in the trip. Few Indians who guided us to Gmunden, a Gujarati family who had come on a Europe trip and a German couple who joined us on our way back till Munchen.

This blog has got very lengthy… I have just discussed how our Austrian trip went.. The details of trains.. all this was not there for us when we started planning. Hopefully, this blog will help those who want to plan for their trip. 

My flight to Germany

After all arrangements done, I was all set for my second German trip. This time, I was to take Air France and not Lufthansa. So a hopping flight at Paris.

22nd May: I worked from home that day, I had a meeting with my manager for my goals setting and had to send couple of mails to people. Did some work and that was it.

Went out to weigh my baggage. My check-in weighed 15.6 and one of the cabin weighed 9.8. I was sure my laptop bag would weigh around 3 kgs, so now my target was 20 + 12(checkin + cabin).

Came home and stuffed more into my checkin and transferred some to check in from my cabin bag and did all the drama to meet my target.

I was in a bit of a tensive mood, since I was left with just one hour in Paris for an immigration check and boarding my next flight, whose terminal was at a distance of around 20 mins walk.

Everything went fine, mom and dad were happy I was going to join my husband, though little bit of tears ran down my mom’s cheeks, there was more of happiness.

Till this day, I was both happy and sad. Happy that I was joining my hubby and sad that I wouldnt get to meet mom, dad and bro for 2 months. But this day, I was just tensed.

Raghu(my hubby) called me and told me that I need not be tensed and that what all I can do if I lose my flight in Paris. That brought in some relief to me.

9:15 we left home to the airport. The international airport of Bangalore is the second most neatly maintained in India. All organised and celebrating one year of its inauguration.

I weighed the two bags outside, removed sugar, rlice and umbrella from my check-in. I also had to remove somethings from my cabin but my cabin was locked due to some incorrect password set unknowingly by someone. I had to remove my lappy charger from my laptop bag and put into the checkin luggage.

Thats that.. said bye to mom, dad and bro and left to the Airfrance counter inside for the boarding pass.

The conters from 32-37(around) were for Air France. I went to counter 33 for business class. I had done an e-checkin so my seats were confirmed. I took my boarding pass, confirmed the gate number in Bangalore and terminals in Paris. Also confirmed that my baggage had a through-checkin.

I took the immigration form and then went upstairs for the immigration check. There I filled the form, submitted it to one of the officers in the counters, confirmed the details that I had filled in the form and went for security checkin.

There I had to remove my laptop from my bag and put in a tray. I did so, removed my jacket et al.. and was done with it.

I was in the air lounge at gate 16 where I had to board my flight. I waited, called my mom and dad and hubby in the meanwhile. It was 01:00 AM and I boarded my flight.

I had chosen seat no. 22A which was the window seat. Next to me sat a pilot from Kingfisher Airlines. The world is so small, he was none other than my senior’s friend’s brother.

We chatted for a while about his pilot training, planes and reference to planes. There are 4 reference light markers on which are written letters P, A, P, I on each as reference for pilots to take off it seems. I came to know about that when the pilot beside me told me. I started watching TV after this watched Dostana for a while, had dinner and I slept.

I couldnt get sleep due to the insufficient leg space. Till Paris, I couldnt sleep. I had my breakfast and was all set to land Paris.

In Paris, once the flight landed, we were taken to the terminal 2C in a bus. There was something I never expected. The airport autorities were running checks on everyone. Somehow, they made all those going to Stuttgart/Hamberg from Bangalore stand aside. It was already 8:40 and she made us all wait till 9:10. I had to board my flight by 9:25. I told her so and she immediately took us all or verification and sent us.

I met a guy from Bosch there who helped me drag my baggage till the terminal 2D. We quickly had our immigraion check and started running towards our terminal. I had seen in my flight to Paris, the gate for my connecting flight, which was D53A. We reached the terminal, had security-checkin and went towards the gate. The flight was delayed by 15 mins and then we boarded. I tried messaging my bro and hubby but couldnt do so, may be my inernational roaming was not activated.

I had some tea in the flight and reached stuttgart. At stuttgart, took a trolley by inserting a euro borrowed from that Bosch guy, collected my baggage and went to the exit, were Raghu was waiting. He tried to hide himself but in vain.. I introduced him to his colleague, we dropped off the trolley and returned the euro to him.

There I was, in stuttgart, with Raghu. We bid a bye to that guy and took a train to our apartment.

There were not much people on the road. Suddenly I felt that I am missing something. I felt very bad…

We reached our apartment, called up mom and my sis-in-law. Told them I reached safely and I went to freshen up. Raghu had cooked rice and boiled vegetables by then. I came back and prepared the curry.

We had that and slept till 6:30 when I had to be forcefully waken up.

We had to rush to a shop to buy sugar, since we had no sugar at home. I wanted to chat with mom and dad but that was not possible, since no audio was supported on googletalk. I chatted with dad for some time and I told them to get ready with a Skype id next day and logged off.

We went to a store by 8:00.. all other shops were closed by then and had to get into this expensive store. We took a deo for me, sugar and ice cream. That costed us 4,72 euros.

Then went to the hotel where Raghu was staying and met up with his friends and soon it was time for our train. We left to our house. It was 10:00 and Raghu’s some friends came home. We showed them our home and saw them off and immediately logged in to talk to home. Got my bro who was waiting and chatted with him for a while. And then cooked rice and had dinner and slept off.

That was my arrival day for stuttgart.

Universal Bankruptcy

Reading about National Bankruptcy, I started wondering about Universal Bankruptcy.. But that is far from being possible. Let me explain why..

The universe is a close entity. Now, here, just like the fundamental law of physics, where same thing cannot exist in two places at the same time, in economic terms, all countries in this universe cannot be making profit at the same time. If one is in profits, one has to be in loss to keep the balance. Lets take a small village. If one gives some money to a fellow villager, then the taker owes that much money to the giver. So, the taker might put interest rates high so he makes profit. But the giver is in loss whily repaying it. This can be extended to as big geographical areas as possible.

How did Iceland get bankrupt? Remember, Iceland has still not declared itself bankrupt officially. The whole nation went bankrupt because it cannot repay other nations for the imports. This happened because all leading banks owed money in terms of foreign currency to other nations and now they are unable to repay them back. So, this is a classic example of a nation owing money to other nation.

Can all countries go bankrupt? Well, again, following the fundamental law of physics, the answer is no.. unless all countries decide to burn all their currencies and transform the liquid money to ash.. since we still assume that people are wise, we rule out this possibility.

When markets went up and down also, the law of physics must hold.. i.e., if Sensex is up, something else should go low, otherwise we cant account for the profits. But something caused an imbalance. If we wonder what that is.. then that’s the investor psyche.. which appreciated real estate/company stocks. This gave a virtual feeling of huge profits.. but when the same was depreciated, it resulted in a catastrophe. Rightly, mind of the market is controlling the inflation across countries.

I kept on thinking about it and the reason for national bankruptcy. Believe me.. I have got a headache now..

My venture with my scooty..

WOW!! My first long-ride on my scooty..

Today I took my scooty to a shopping complex for a lunch treat (shared by me ofcourse!!). After the terrible fall I had had 2 weeks back, I never knew I could do it.. Today is my riding day actually. Lemme tell u the series of events/rides that took place today.

I had to exchange my washing machine today, so was all set to go to the showroom/dealer with my dad. But my dad wanted to see if he could fix the issue first. So, he got his hands dirty into it. In the meanwhile, I took my scooty to fuel it. When I got back, my dad observed there was a pipe left open and started to check what was that for. The I convinced my dad that I can always take it to the showroom and ask them. I did so.. Actually, that was an air pipe that comes from the engine, so that engine has adequate air for the combustion. I asked him to show other vehicles, and all of them had. So, conviced.. Since I had gone that far, paid a visit to aunt’s house.. hadnt been there since I bought my scooty..

After that, I decided that I will take my scooty for the treat today. Though that is a busy area, I thought someone could lead me. I called BG and asked him to lead the way and that I would follow him. He came with RG and pursuaded that I dont take my bike. But BG, I am confident of my riding.. Its okay.. I can understand his apprehension. They then led me the way and I followed them, reached the complex, parked my bike and set out for lunch. It was already late, about 2:45 and my stomach had started singing the hunger raga. So we went to Tadka in the complex at around 3:20. It had a buffet which costed Rs. 253 per person. But believe me, it didnt have the varieties that you would expect for ur money. Some in the group argued that we lost the varieties due to our late arrival to the restaurant. But never mind.. First impression was not all that good. After lunch, P invited the uninvited to his wedding and wedding reception. After that we started towards home.

V was to be dropped to his home. He asked me if I could do that. I agreed instantly.. I needed to practice double-rides on busy roads . Man.. u must have seen the way he was begging me to give him control of my scooty. But I didnt. So he jumped off to RG’s bike. Kav anyways didnt trust either mine or Shyl’s riding, so she preferred to rely on BMTC to reach home. The duo(V + RG) along with BG lead me and Shyl to our home. We went till a common point and Shyl went home from there. And then came the way to my home. I was very happy that I went till such a busy area and came back home safely, without panicking during my ride.

After that, mom wanted me to buy something for her and I decided I will take my scooty out again.. My bro was home by then and he had to go somewhere. So he led me this time, though it was dark now, probably 7:00 PM or more than that. I bought what my mom wanted and then bro again led me back home and left from there.

Now, I wanted to check if the capacitor of my washing machine was gone. So had asked my neighbour to check it in his office. I went in my scooty again to inquire that. The capacitor was fine, and I took it with me, took the main road at around 7:45 PM and then came back home..

So, now, I am a bit confident that I can really venture out with my scooty.

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Yeah.. yesterday was my birthday.. but what a great birthday this time.. The story dates back to a day before my birthday. I was coming back home, when I felt sleepy and thought of taking a nap. suddenly I saw my phone sliding towards the end of my seat. Before I could stop it, it slowly went down but with almost zero impact, hit the floor. I then took it and opened it to see that it was switched off. I switched it on, but the display didnt turn up. I removed the battery and did what not.. but couldn’t get it working. And all this had to happen a day before my birthday. I went home and asked my brother, a former employee of this telecom company where I bought this phone from. But he too said little can be done and suggested to get me a cell phone as a gift for my birthday. But I, being optimistic about it getting alright, asked him to wait. My dad then gave me his phone for 2-3 days, coz he knew how busy I would be on my birthday..

First of the birthday wishes were probably intended by my brother. But when he called, my mom heard the call and wished me first. Cho chweet.. and then my bro called up to wish me and then my friend and then another friend.. and others’ messages. Some of the messages I couldn’t make out who were they from, since my contacts were in my phone. But generically replied them back.. And then went back to sleep..

I thought I must wake up early so that I dont mess my birthday morning. I then got ready, took my parents’ blessings, had breakfast and then set out to my office. My team-mates wished me.. and I iterated the whole phone story to them.. After that, I would open something to work and I would get a call. I probably did lesser work than anyone one else.. Later, my team-mates asked me for a treat. Since there were two others who were waiting to treat the team with me, we went to Mark Bouleward for lunch that day. The treat amount was handsome though. It is not an inexpensive restaurant you see.. but its ok.. Once in a while.. in fact once in a year.

After we came back, was the surprise. As usual, my team-mates had got me a cheese cake. But with the cake, some cake cracker also. And this was the idea of Mr. K. I really cant forget this. The cake-cracker was lit and it started lighting like a flower-pot leaving no traces at all on the cake. Was a very nice one. But I was a bit scared of the sensors that would start sprinkling water on sensing fire.. And I was standing right below the sprinkler also. But fortunately it was far from happening. As soon as I went near to cut the cake, it burst and actually scared me. And Mr. K didn’t want to waste the cheese cake from Sweet Chariot it seems, so he had got another cheese cake and put all over my face, the protocol was followed by rest others too.. I had a very tough time removing the cake from my face. Someone said my face glowing after the cake facial

And after all this, my very close friend at office wished me and I left little early to home by a Volvo. After I reached home, mom was not keeping very well, got her some tablets and was attending calls again. I expected my mentor to call me from the US and he had called. Good you called. Coz I knew you wouldnt miss wishing me. And my friend too who is tieing a nuptial knot with this mentor of mine, had mailed me, I expected this too.. coz I knew she too wouldnt forget it. My friend BG came home to wish me and had got chocoz also.. Sisterly affection forced him to come home to wish me it seems.. And Mr. R wished me like 5 times Same with many others..

And, the day was almost over. Had dinner, too many sweets and got to bed. But I still kept getting calls and messages.

 

 

My trip to the Cabana with friends..

This was something that was under planning stage since past 2 weeks. Dr. A wanted us all to have a reunion in some resort or something this time, and BG followed up. The message was great. Hello Friends, Lets decide for a fun-filled day either this sunday or next sunday. Please vote for your availability. All of us replied back with our preferences. Majority voted for today(Though I was not very much willing for today. I preferred last sunday). Then came the place. BG wanted Club Cabana. But I wanted some trekking spot. 4 of us met up last week, did some groundwork on the resorts and other trekking spots, but, as usual, with my weak management skills, couldn’t convince anyone to my favourite destinations. And, there we were, finally, decided to go Club Cabana on 20th July with another very zealous message from BG. BG, we can definitely not forget your pattern of message. We all had to meet at a bus stop by 8:15 in the morning.

Preparing for this day was great. Yesterday whole day I was out with my family and by the time we came back it was 11 in the night. So no prep at all. Had to wake up early today and get my things ready. Mom woke me up at 7:30 in the morning. By the time I was ready it was 8:30. Then came Dr. S’s call. Where are u? I am the only one here, cant spot anybody from our group. I asked her to give me 10 mins to reach there. Picked my clothes and other accessories, put on my shoes and set out. Dad was to drop me to the stop. But you know, I was sure I had forgotten to take something.

I reached there and spotted S. I showed her to Dad and he left to home. As usual, asked him to call me once he reached home. Sometimes, daughters become mothers. S and me spotted our group standing elsewhere. You wont believe, I saw few of them for the first time after 13 years, but I could still remember them, either by name or by face. V is talkative as he was, but this time, talked a lot about the other girls in our class. He is really the database. Keep it up V. Others were not from my class, but from Ra’s class. We waited and waited and the TT that was booked never turned up. Ra and BG went to enquire and found that he does not want to come anymore. They then arranged for some other cab, which is bigger than Sumo and smaller than a TT. BG called it by some name that I cant remember. The driver took some time to take bath and come to the place. I had had a late dinner so didnt have anything at home. By the time this driver came, my stomach was yelling at me. I then told Ra that he should have told there are no girls in the group. Somehow, we killed time by talking about our other classmates. Mr. A who wanted to come with his wife, but also had to get his ration card done today, so would turn up there directly but a little late. When the cab came, we were happy to get there..

Everyone took seat, we were 15 of us, so obviously the cab was not able to accomodate all of us. We had to adjust. Ra was doing some seating arrangements that none of us followed. Vin and V with 2 others took the back seat. I took a one-seater in front of Vin’s seat. And others took suitable places. And this triggered mine and Vin’s arguments all through the way till a restaurant where we broke for breakfast. When I came back I didnt take the one-seater. Not because I was scared of Vin’s arguments, but because, I wouldnt want much space and a one-seater was ideal for a heavy-bodied person. Sorry Ra, I dont mean to offend you.

After that our next stop was at Club Cabana. After a decision of whether to enter water world before or after lunch, we settled at entering it before lunch. We changed our attires to fit the warer world. I dunno swimming. But many there knew. Amongst girls, Ro and Dr. A knew swimming. Dr. A was an expert at it. She knew so many stunts.. mushroom dip, I dunno what others.. But really good. Ro also had some stunts in her plate. Vin was constantly into pushing me into the deeper part of the pool. Somehow I stood him. Thanks to Ra who pushed me out of the tube and was successful in drowning me and filling me with water..

After water games, we girls thought we will change and have food and then go to other games. Guys were still not done with water games. When we went to change is when I realized that I was not carrying somethings. But thats ok, doctors are good. They always carry spare things. I got one from Dr. S.

We then had lunch and guys went to the Banana Peel, where the staff there hadnt allowed we girls saying that we must wear a swim-wear or else we are not allowed. We just watched the guys play there. After that we went to play Billiards, Carrom and then Shuttle Badminton. Shuttle was really good. We literally perspired.

We then did the payment, took lots of snaps and then took some tea and started back home. Our return journey was good. We played Antakshari. Vin didnt like the idea, but had to live with it, due to public demand. Ro and my database were huge. We had songs for any letter. And Dr. A’s and my dances here and there for some songs also added to the whole masti. We reached the same stop where be boarded the cab(almost) and our songs still didnt get exhausted. We then took all their phone numbers and parted. Vin was saying sorry for all the arguments.. Vin.. You will definitely regret all this.

I took a rick with BG and he dropped me home. And here I am reliving them in this blog. Will surely put some snaps once our doctor uploads them.

The latest movie I watched..

Hmmmm.. last week, with my whole team, we went to watch Hancock, featuring Will Smith and Charlize Theron. You definitely cant find logic in this movie. But yeah.. a good tell tale. I dunno how can someone think of a Hancock and the lady(I call her Hanhen, why not ) being born in pairs. I thought this would mean siblings.. Charlize even mentions this in the movie. But she also says technically Hancock is her husband. The closer they are to each other, the more powerless they are and more they go towards mortality. Hmmm.. Can you believe Hancock is more than 80 years old in the movie? Well, it is interesting in its own sense. The twist that Charlize(Mary) gives about her being as powerful as Hancock himself, is revealed just before the intermission. And ofcourse, the story goes on, with comedy in subtlety. Dialogues like.. “Say crazy one more time”, “Good Job”.. I have started using them too..

The movie is good.. I would rate it 3/5. We dont go to watch a movie to find the physics of it, but to forget everything and laugh it out. This movie does just that.. I wanted to pen this before my experience of the day…

It still pains….

It all started exactly a fornight ago.. I dont know what persuaded me to take such a stupid decision (looks stupid now). It was in my childhood that I had gone through this pain which I dont remember anymore now. But believe me.. it takes a lot of courage to do this.. Well.. I am not talking about any mental agonies or any wierd thing that can come to your mind, but the wierdest of all.. getting my nose pierced..

Then was the time I was really busy with some things.. and my niece told my mom that she wants to poke her nose. Did she really have to say that? That too, to my mom? OK.. all said and done, my mom asked me to learn something from her. Please, she is 6 years younger to me. Ok.. since I had a passion to have a ring on my nose (This doesnt mean I am a die-hard fan of Sania Mirza), I said yes to mom. Now, before I changed my decision, mom and my sis took me and my niece to a doc. Fortunately, the doc wasnt there. But the duo didnt give up. Took us to a parlour and got our nose poked. And the parlour.. they used their studs to poke. They asked me to go there in the evening to put my stud. When I went there in the evening, I knew it would pain a bit. But when she removed hers and put mine, I felt tears were running down my cheeks automatically.. And there, my mom was also in tears. I asked her why was she crying. she said she cant see tears in my eyes. U know what… she is really very sweet.. How mothers live through their childrens’ pains.. Only they can understand why u look sad or happy. Only they know u better. And there I was, with a poked nose. And crying all through my way home. But believe me, I didnt wanna cry. It just happened.

When my team-mates got to know about it.. all they said was What!!!! Were u loose or something? Huh, was that what I had to hear after all the pain? Finally there were atleast some ppl who said it looks good. But u know, as usual, I take every comment also as a compliment. So that actually doesnt affect me..

After a fortnight, now I realize it actually pains. It still pains..

I finally failed in a test..

It is really an experience.. All through my life I hv always scored decently well in all my exams. But this is really frightening. Failed it not just once but even the second time. Oh.. I am talking about my Learner’s License test!!

First of all.. shun me for having deciding to drive now. so many ppl younger to me have already gone through this phase and have become proficient drivers. And here I am.. Having immersed myself in music, novel-reading, watching movies and ofcourse work, I never thought it was a great idea to start driving. I know to ride cycle though.. But this didnt help much in trying my hands on two-wheelers. Finally, after all the hardship and ofcourse the inevitable fights with the rikshaw-drivers, I decided to get my hands dirty on a two-wheeler.

To start with, I read through blogs on taking LL test here. I read that there are long queues everywhere and I must be prepared to stand that. I also got to know that there may be some brokers charging u more for the work. Dont give them even a second look. I even browsed through the sample test that some people had uploaded and also the test paper provided by the governing body itself. For two days.. I was here reading about traffic signals.. dip/dim lights on vehicles and so on… And then I got the form and had a slot to take my test on a saturday..

That was the first saturday of my LL test.. will tell u why later… I went to the relevant office.. I didnt know the sequence of “Things to do”.. Got hold of another applicant and asked him what all was it that I had to do.. Paid money for the application (Remember.. u must give proper change or else u have to sacrifice ur position in the queue). Luckily, the queue was not as long as I expected it to be (Probably I had prepared myself for the worse..). I then put my photos as per directions, pinned all the relavant documents and finally was in a queue to get an official seal. Then what.. I was directed to go to a section in a hall and I went to take my test there. Submitted my form and the person on the other side gave me a question paper (a laminated one ) with an answer paper. The questions were of multiple choice and hence that was ok I thought. The paper didnt look all that difficult to me at all. Once I was done, I submitted my paper and the guy on the other side evaluated my marks. It was just one mark less than the passing marks. That was terrible!!!

I then thought I will take up the test again. Since I am employed I cant take week-days off so easily. I went again yesterday.. The second saturday of my LL test!! (Now you know the reason!! ) Now I was quite well-versed with what had to be done.. Quickly did all that I had done last week. This time I got a different paper which looked easier than last week’s. Took up the test. Guess what!! Failed again with one mark less again. I was totally disappointed..

When I came home, I was welcomed again by mom with all smiles, saying that finally I managed to fail in the same thing twice. Now I am thinking what to do. I will sure try again. Atleast the third time, I must make it. I will definitely drive..