Palani's ramblings...

Rambling ahead..

2010-11-29T11:31:00.000-08:00

Got a note

Conform or perish

Go with the crowd

Take the good fight

Dissolve in the many

Shine red in soreness

Similar drops make an ocean

Everest pierces the surface

Lead

One for all

All in one

Survive.

test message for my kindle

2009-08-04T22:18:00.000-07:00

Testing it!

Test to see speed

2009-05-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

Trek to Nagalapuram (Nagala 9) with CTC - Dec 13/14, 2008

2008-12-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

The night was filled with excitement, the expectation of the trek to start. I bet the alarm and woke up at 3:25 AM on Saturday morning. Already having packed, I quickly hopped on to my Elantra and raced to Tidel Park. Brief intros, more folks trickling in, we finally got to full quorum at Tidel by 4:20. Picking up a couple of folks on the way we headed to Koyambedu, and there all the 30 odd folks to start on this journey assembled. More intros, stuffing of our bags into the cars, and soon we were ready to proceed. Still dark and so beautiful a weather the Nagala Hills were luring us.

We stopped at our usual breakfast point quite early. Waiting for the breakfast to get ready we were getting to know the fellow trekkers. Around 6:30 we started our final leg to our base camp. The final stretch of the road had quite a bit of a surprise for us. Well the first of many to come :-). The recent rains made the mud roads very difficult to navigate and the trekkers turned to constructionists, mending the road so that the cars could move further. Finally we chose to park the car on the road a few hundred metres to our usual base camp. The trekkers from Hyderabad had also arrived.

Distributing food for the next two days, we all, 45 of us, buckled up and proceeded towards the dam. Avoiding the muddy paths, we finally hit the top of the dam, and behold, there was the huge lake formed by the dam! The water was as high as a two storey building. The trek had started. One of the many unknowns we had to conquer in order to complete Nagala 9!

Spidey sensed Ram and Peter then figured out the route to take. We planned to go over the small hill to the left and get back to the trail at the spot of the burning tree. Sickle in hand Ram and Peter tried to get us an opening through the bushes. And after a few dead ends we finally hit the trail to get to the burning tree. Well tree had stopped burning quite a while ago, but now it was half submerged in water. So we decided to go back and join the trail at a further point. Finally we hit the trail to the first pool of many Nagala treks and we had lost an hour or so. With the recent rains the pool was lot more gushing with water and the mini waterfall was really force full. We all got into the pool and the next 30 mins it was heaven! The non-swimmers were helped using a rope to get to the waterfall, and we all enjoyed the natural massage nature had to offer.

We started to our next destination, the small waterfall up the river bed. Here we had our lunch, filled our water bottles, as this was our last water point until the next day! From now on it was the breathtaking views of Nagala Hills which filled us as we made our way to the 600m summit. As we scaled, the chatter went on, the glucon-d mixed water vanished into our thirsty throats, the lead group explored the routes, the middle pack moved at constant pace, the sweepers made sure no one was left behind. Many snaps got clicked, many limbs got tired, trekkers’ camaraderie was displayed helping out fellow trekkers, and as we neared sun-down we were getting ever closer to our summit.

The morning detour made sure we had to trek in the night. Taking out our led torches we were scaling the slopes with caution. The lead group scouted the hills for easy routes to the top. After an hour or so of trekking in the dark, we reached our summit! Wow what a feeling. The endurance of 10 hours of trekking, the scrapes and bruises, the exhaustion, the tired muscles, all went out of focus. Calm filled us as the breeze took over our bodies and healed it. Savoring the gentle breeze, we moved onto our camping ground. The tent poles from Nagala 2 were still intact! We setup 3 tents and had dinner. Some dozed under the tents; some slept watching the beautiful sky, the full moon smiling at us, the stars gazing at us showing a universe we are oblivious to in our busy walks of life.

Our tired bones resting, it wasn’t an easy job waking up J. But as the day broke, we woke. By 6:45 AM we were again locked and ready for next 12 hours (or more(?)) of fun. With the morning sun lighting up the Nagala Hills it was time to enjoy the nature’s lighting effects from the various viewpoints on our way. Our first destination was the 300m waterfalls! Even the thought of it excites me. We started our descent and caught the river bed of this waterfall. We trekked along those slippery rocks, sometimes going up and trying to find a faster route. We were time conscious and wanted to get to the base camp by 5 PM as the Hyd folks had to catch a train back to Hyd.

More glucon-d was consumed, legs were getting tired, and hunger was setting in as we approached the waterfalls. Finally at 12 noon we reached our destination. We all jumped into the pool washed our muddy selves and had great fun under the small waterfall. This was on top of the magnificent 300m waterfall. After the fun in the water we weren’t prepared for the sight of our lives!!

Just a few metres form the pool there was the 300m waterfall! Sitting at the top of it, with a sheer vertical drop of 300m below you, the Nagala Hills and valleys all around you, it was unbelievable. Nature in all its glory let this place be formed over millions and millions of years. How pristine! How wonderful! The breeze filled your mind with beauty which will haunt you for ever! These immortal images etched our mind.

We had lunch here, and started on our descent. We indented to get down on the hill adjoining the right side of the dam. To get there we had to go past two hills! These were mostly new trails and the lead group was trying to find us trails we can follow. We encountered very slippery slopes, thorny bushes, small slips, some hurling rocks, and all through amazing team work. Helping each other we crossed the first hill and we were on the descent on the second. But time wasn’t on our side. It was getting dark, and last part of the trail was yet to be explored. The Hyd folks readjusted their plans to catch the later train. So began our second night trek.

Torches out, egging people on, helping those without torches, saving the final drops of water, we could see our base camp and the lake beside it. It was a final stretch, a final push, searching our insides for the hidden energies we never knew were inside us. Going through the bushes, almost pitch dark, we finally hit the exit to the dam!! Just then the moon showed its beautiful evening face out, blushing in red, peeking at the 45 crazy trekkers.

Some took a quick dip in the dam, some relaxed, some gazed at the beauty of the Nagala hills in the night, and some ogled the moon. But all knew the limits they pushed within themselves and had won.

After a leisurely walk back to the cars we headed back to civilization. We had some mouth watering food on the way in road side dhabbas, as our favorite Chennai Deluxe would not be open by the time we would have gotten back. We drove back the tired, exhausted but totally exalted bodies back to Chennai. The Hyd folks had started a bit earlier to catch the midnight train.

Saying goodbyes we parted at Koyambedu. The memorable Nagala 9 came to an end. It’s been 3 days since we completed the trek but the hangover has not passed. All you need to do is close your eyes and the beauty, the thrills, the serenity, the camaraderie, the fun, the amazing friendships, the sound of the gushing water, the silence of the Nagala valleys, the breeze of the summit, the light hearted banter, the high of being one with Nature, the inner knowledge of oneself, all come rushing back. Until the next trek, let the hangover remain.

PS: Pics courtesy Karthik Ramalingam, Bhaskar, Suresh Kumar and Suresh Kanna.

Moving to LJ

2005-11-20T05:24:00.000-08:00

Hi All,
I have started blogging at http://www.livejournal.com/users/palanidaran/. So catch me there.
Bye,
Palani.

A Different Sunday

2005-11-13T09:01:00.000-08:00

One week after returning back from the Diwali vacation, I thought my weekends would still be going on in the same routine lazy way. But this Sunday was quite different. My dad was to come to Bangalore for attending his JD’s (Joint Director, I guess) daughter’s engagement.

He and one of his colleagues (Karthikeyan Uncle) arrived in the Brindavan Express around 1:30 PM. To make the house presentable I woke up a bit early (that’s 10:30 AM, :) ) and cleaned the house. Not thoroughly though enough to make it look presentable.

I picked them up, and on our way home we had food. Rested for some while at the home and then I took them to show around Bangalore. I took them first to Lalbagh, then to MTR for some coffee, and then we headed to Matikere for the engagement. On the way we checked out Vidhan Soudha, pretty cool piece of architecture. Our way to Matikere was tiresome, though not much traffic, the roads we bad. After some fight, to figure out the address, we finally got to the place around 6:20 PM, just in time for the function.

Lots of my dad’s colleagues were here, and I knew some of them, so wasn’t that bad. Also yesterday I had enabled GPRS on my mobile, so that too kept me busy :). Though gmail was pretty slow through it, I managed to send a mail with an attachment through it.

Then once the function was over, we had some good food and started back to the railway station. After some wrong turns we finally reached the station. Dropped them off and headed back home.

My usual Sunday is a lot different from the above. I usually read some book, or go watch a movie in theatre or in my laptop, or play some game in the laptop. But today though tiring was good. Especially sitting in the park was quite peaceful. Having less traffic and good roads would have made today great, but in Bangalore to ask for that is too much. But all in all a good day.

On a side note Bk’s anna, Surender, was saying a real estate guru is predicting that the Blore real estate bubble is going to burst in a year’s time. The prices are going to fall by 30 to 50%. Well if the infrastructure does not improve it is bound to happen.

Now that I am net enabled on weekends, hope to blog more often :).

Signing off,
Palani.

Nostalgia Strike

2005-11-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

I am spending the 9 day vacation/holiday during the Diwali/Ramzan in Chennai. A week into my 9 day vacation, the time seems to have flied. I got a new Nokia 6630 cellphone. Also had been going around the city checking out car showrooms. I am looking for a mid-sized car and it is really tough to decide which one. I have to test drive a few more cars before I can make a decision.
Today is Ramzan, and every Ramzan we go to one of our ex-neighbour, Ayesha akka's house for lunch. She had called to invite us and thats when nostalgia hit me. We lived in a small house in Egmore during most of my early schooling, till 7th or 8th Standard. Now that I look back those were really memorable days. Let me remember some moments from the past.
Our house then was one among the 7 houses in the building. The place is sort of complexly build as the owners built it in stages. We lived in the first house. Just thinking of those days brings so much memories to me, those weekends watching rented movies, those diwalis, those card games... I will never be able to capture all them in writing, but it is not to be written it is to be felt.
The home next to ours was occupied by my uncle and aunt. I usually played with their kid, Deepak, before I left for school. The other houses in the groundfloor were occupied by Shiny akka and Ayesha akka. Just above our house was our owner's house. Some of the most memorable afternoons as a school kid was spent on the balcony of their house. I used to play cards and Business (Monopoly) with Prema akka, Venkatesh anna (owner's children, and much older than me :)) and many others from their house. I drag them on to play with me. I was (am?) such a stubborn kid and once I got 4 As, 4 Kings and 4 Queens and still wanted them to play the same game of Ace (Donkey).
I had a few my age group friends as well. Kamesh lived in the opposite house, Gnanasekhar also in another opposite house and Vicky in the house next door. I also played with Ganesh anna, who lived next door as well. During Diwali crackers were so much fun then. I used to be very calculative in using the extra cracker allowance given to me and plan to get crackers which would give us the most amount of time bursting them to the once which cause the biggest noise. Omar, my classmate, will join us during Diwali and he, Vicky, me spend a lot of time enjoying those great sounds.
Well the memories seem to be countless, let me drown in them. I will find another time to give another sample. Looking back I see how active, life filled my life has been, though now it is only filled with work and slumber. Hope I can counter it and have a more lively life soon :).

Bye,

Palani.

Vacation Time

2005-07-13T11:19:00.001-07:00

Well finally we were able to go for the team trip we had planned long long ago. We went to Cauvery Fishing Camp, Bheemeshwari, 100 kms from Bangalore. We went there on Thursday last week (7th July).

As with any fun activity, this trip also was on the back of a really busy work day. I put a night out (as did a few others) and directly got ready for the morning departure. I had a nice sleep during our ride, with most of my team members singing lullabies :). We arrived there around 12 noon, late by a couple of hours but everyone knows IST :). There was a lot of water in the river, and there was no swimming allowed because of Crocodiles present in the water. The place was very quiet and we were the only visitors on that day. We started with some trekking, not really tiresome, reached a small hilltop that had an observation tower. The breeze there was AMAZING. You could sit there all day long, but our hunger got the best of us and we went down back to the camp for lunch.

After lunch, it was time to relax. The place has lots of hammocks present and they also had some huge nets tied some 10 foot above the ground on the trees. Most of us went on top of the huge net and it was fun. It takes some time to get the hang of moving on top of it. The sun, the breeze, the humidity, everything there was PERFECT. This is how you should relax. Some of us even took a small nap. The only thing I missed was a book in hand.

Then we went for a boat ride. This had to be short because of too much water being present. We left CFC and reached Northern Gate, Taj Gateway, for our team dinner. This ended our cool, relaxing time out from work.

My vacationing time just began, as I was on a week's vacation from 11th to 15th of July. I plan to spend my time doing nothing much and just lazing at home. So far it has been so.

-Palani.

Diamonds Everywhere... and Olu's sister's marriage

2005-07-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen diamonds all round you? I have seen them. I am not sure if all could be as lucky as me. I am not even sure if I will ever be able to see that sight again.

We all (Bk, Arun Prasath, Arvind, Dm, Jagan & myself) left to Virudhunagar to attend Eshwari akka's (Olu's sister) wedding. Natty and Sk couldn't make it to VNR. In addition to this there was 12 other Trilogians who were coming to attend the marriage. The Chennai numbers were comparatively less with only 4 guys (DC, Mappy, MVS, Saby) joining us on Saturday (2nd July) morning. The others who joined us were, Prabu on Sun morning, Saravana Devi (Arun's sis) on Sat evening, G Arun Kumar on Sun morning, Thiru, Balakarunanithi on Monday morning.

Our plan for Saturday was to have breakfast in Olu's house and then visit Adhisayam water theme park (just outside Madhurai). Though it seemed slightly late we arrived in Athisayam at around 2 PM. It was quite empty and we had lots of fun in the water. The theme park though did not have many ppl visiting was really well maintained. The wave pool was especially great fun. Around 6 we left the place and got to Vnr. We all went to Burma kadai, a local parotta specialty hotel. The food was amazing. Once we filled our tummies, we hit the sac in my house. We had to wake up at 2:30 PM to get ready to go to Papanasam waterfall, so we took on the most logical approach, skip sleep. We had lost a new pack of UNO cards, so it was no more an option. We settled to playing Ass.

Amazingly we didn't miss our estimated time of departure by much, and we left for the waterfalls around 4 AM. The journey wasn't very comfortable, so I got only pockets of sleep. But we were properly entertained by the soundtrack of Anniyan, and lots of evergreen melodies of Illayaraja, thanks to DM's creative 30 GB mp3 playing monster and Jude's cassette adapter.

We reached the Papanasam dam, and took the boat to the waterfalls. It was a magnificent sight. Crystal clear water flowing out in huge quantities. The sight shows how small humans are compared to nature's forces. Though the falls was quite big, the places available for the public to take bath was pretty small. Also swimming was prohibited because it is risky. Though the bathing place was really crowded and a security with a stick was making sure no person stood there for a long time, a few of us took a bath there. This was my first peek at the diamonds. Well no one else could see them though, and the diamonds were just the blurred vision of the sun shining out of the crystal clear water all around. But the whole sight was so cool. I am planning to get Lasik surgery (laser eye correction) tomorrow, so I might no more get this wonderful sight, but on the positive side I would be able to identify who is there in a pool a couple of metres from me :).

We left Papanasam around 12 noon after filling ourselves with some locally catched delicious fishes and vadais. Our next destination was Manimutharu falls. This place was not as huge as Papanasam falls, but there was not a big crowd around. So we could take a good nice bath. Also the water force was good and it was like having our bodies massaged. We couldn't trek here due to lack of time and we started our return journey to Vnr. We stopped for food inbetween and reached Vnr around 7 PM. We attended the Nithchayathartham function then.

Though most of us were dead tired, there was a group of ppl who wanted to watch a night show movie. Well we went to watch Anniyan, but maybe a couple of ppl of the 10 or so saw the movie. Rest took a good nap.

After everyone got ready we left for the marriage hall. It must have been really auspicious, there was even some rain then. Most of the guys were amazed by the very different marriage. Our tradition is pretty different and is also shorter than other marriages. In the afternoon, there was a small cultural event in the mandapam. Olu's little niece danced really well for lots of songs. Also the function was graced by Thiru's voice. But to have a thrishti pottu, Olu insisted that I sing as well :). Well I made sure everyone laughed.

Our return journey was entertaining as we were playing Literature (a card game) with a couple of more Trilogians. It was pretty intellectually stimulating. Back to office on Tuesday.

-Palani

Water, water everywhere

2005-06-07T01:55:00.000-07:00

Finally I get time to write about the great tragedy that stuck me some 10 days back. It left me bedless, and filled with illness. Now that I have recuperated let me narrate the eventful story:

It was 27th of May and I came from work at 9.30 AM after putting yet another niteout. I was pretty tired and wanted to sleep till 5 PM or so. I was in pretty deep sleep and suddenly around 4PM, even my unconscious could feel it, all the light of the afternoon was sucked out, and I could feel those gusty winds. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1124875.cms)

Seeing that it was going to pour I was really happy. I love rain, especially when it pours. Bk was still home and was about to leave, but seeing that it would be impossible to go in his bike he hopped on with me. We started to office in some really heavy rain. The excitement of it all made us overlook the unlatched windows. What a great mistake we made.

The journey to office was a eventful to say the least. With my aging Maruthi 800, after going 100m we were worried we might get stuck in the rain. Also our visibility was close to 0. Luckily we tailed a Qualis and kept navigating. Our usual route was blocked by a fallen tree. Many more roads suffered the same state. Then we hit some high ground and thought we could be safe. Well or so we thought, with Bangalore's lovely infrastructure that was just a dream. The BDA guys made sure they put a foot high divider in the middle of the road, but they forgot that both sides of the road needs drainage. Water was logged on one side of the road, and even the otherside it was very slow to drain.

Halfway to our office, we were in 2 feet of water, and not so unexpectedly water started pouring in into the car. Though we didn't figure out the amount of water that got in then, we could feel our feet getting wet. Every second was exciting, we were in constant fear of the car giving up anytime. But Maruthi proved why they are the No. 1 car in India, a 12 year old car making it through a literal flood.

Once we reached office, we were ecstatic and didn't really care about the water logged car. We got on with our work and we returned to the car to go for dinner. That is when we figured our we must have carried atleast 30 litres of dirty water. After some really dumb ways of emptying the car of the water, the stopper in the base of the car was found and we drained out all the water. The floor covering was still sufficiently wet and only after 10 days is it dry enough to get into the car without wincing.

If I had thought that my misery was just the wet floored car, how wrong I was. We went home to find that the hall's floor was pretty wet. Then I ventured into my room to find my bed totally soaked. It was so full with water, even with four people lifting it it was tough. We couldn't find any good place to dry the bed, as it was still threateningly close to raining. With some ingenious ideas my bed is almost dry now, still one corner to go :).

The water left my room smelling funny. I should have taken the cue and avoided my room, but we morons (Arun and myself) stayed there, and got sick. Poor Arun still hasn't recovered. Me atleast got out of it in some 4 - 5 days.

Man, nature is scary. It was a sedate Friday afternoon and in an hours time everything got changed head over heels.

Though rain caused so much havoc, this experience was one of the most exciting ones I had in recent times.

-Palani.

Life as it is...

2005-04-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

Its been 4 months since I last blogged, so there's lot to write. So hang on for another long one.

Fun Jan:
There is no limit for fun. We just returned from Mumbai, and the next weekend we had another mini get-together in Bangalore. This time though the number of attendees was much higher. Lot of my friends who are doing their MS in US had come to India then, and they were present for the get-together. We were around 17-18 ppl and had lots of fun. We scaled the great foothill of the Nandi mountain range :) by foot. (Don't know how high it is, but from the top you could see ppl at the base to be few cms in height.) Then we went to a really benign manmade water falls at Balmuri (or was it Bhel Puri?). This place is near Krishna Raja Sagar Dam in Mysore. We couldn't resist the temptation of the Brindavan Gardens and made a visit there. We had great fun playing high catches there. But there is one unforgettable place in the whole journey, though I don't remember its name ;), the hotel we stopped for breakfast and dinner. The place had amazing Ulunda vadais. Ethana saptom. For a group of around 15 we ordered around 20 plates of vadais (ie around 40 vadais). Luckily not many had any serious *back* problems the next day.

Jan was *the* month. We had fun all the way. I work in the AutoBU in Trilogy and we had an outing planned out. This also ended up being in Jan. We went to Wayanad in Kerala. Well I had the additional responsibility of organizing this trip, but that didn’t hamper our fun one bit. We trekked up some ancient caves, which had some amazing views. We also had a nice stroll through an island, criss crossing streams of water. Two days is just not enough for Wayanad. You definitely need to spend more time there.

Work and recognition:
You could have read from my pervious posts that my work has been improving, that trend kept continuing. I was expecting to get an “Above expectations” rating for the previous half. In our company we have half yearly rating which could be below, meets and above expectation. But one fine evening my TDO (senior manager of the team) asks me to call him on his phone. Thinking more along the lines of some production bug I make the call. He surprises me with the news that I am going to be promoted to Senior Dev. It’s a great feeling to see your labour bear fruits. Also all my current roomies (bk, olu, Arun – IITM, and Senthil) got “Above expectation” rating. Senthil also got promoted from Technical analyst to Dev. So it was great news all around.

Matches in heaven:
The batch in which I joined Trilogy is called TU2k3 (Trilogy University 2003). One thing that was missing in TU2k3 was married people. All of us were young and hadn’t made the mistake yet ;). But we were yearning for someone to first take up the challenge. I always hope to see my friends getting married :). Attending friends marriages are fun. More about this latter. TU2k3 was also being pressured on by the next batch TU2k4 which had a married guy. So we put in our first candidate Himanshu, but his wedding is to happen only next Jan. As we were all thinking it is Himanshu who’s gonna be the lucky (?) one, our man Ratish makes the move. Though he had a hard time initially to convince his parents to look for a girl, once they got the message, he cashed in with amazing quickness. His marriage is most likely to be in this November. So we as a huge batch (TU2k3) will be looking for vacationing up North some time in November.

Pre-TU2k5:
To close more candidates for TU2k5, we had an event called Pre-TU. The intent was to let the offered candidates know what kind of work goes on in TU. This was a 2 day event, and was held in a 5 star resort “Golden Palms”. This was again really a fun experience. (Am I using the word “fun” a lot??). One bad thing about having these events in a resort is that you never get time to enjoy the resort :(. The pre-TUers were split into teams, with one mentor to help them. They were asked to work on a real problem which Trilogy is currently working on. As it is common in TU, these guys were given unrealistic deadlines. They had approximately 4 hours to get this done (assuming they wanted to keep decent sleeping hours). As in true Trilogy fashion it happened that these guys had to slog and get their code done by sacrificing a good night’s sleep. I was amazed a how much enthu the new batch showed. One more rocking TU up ahead. The next day after the demos were all done, we hit the dance floors, some fully sane and most otherwise. Pre-TU was amazing for one and all. I am sure Goop and Dave (Trilogy Austin guys) would agree on that.

The Dinner Club:
Being a software engineer in Trilogy when you have a hectic project release going on could be really stressful. It might not allow you any after the office hour’s activities. And with a screwed up schedule like mine (work from 3PM – 3AM), you could have a very monotonous life. But we found a great way to catch up on our evening life. Danny, Arun, Bk and I used to go for long dinners. They usually last around 2 hours. BTW, Danny is a colleague of ours who is 4 years senior to us. He is a great friend and mentor of mine. These dinner breaks is time for some great conversation. From books to films to science to politics to philosophy, you could never get bored of them. Though different days others to join us, we four almost make it a point to go for dinner together. So this used to be “The Dinner Club”

One more catching the bait? (Oops I didn’t say that)
From April 24^th onwards our Dinner Club’s strength decreased by one. Danny got married to Renu. Poor Danny was in office coding away till 2 AM on Saturday morning, with the wedding on Sunday. I hope this would never happen anymore. (I guess Renu would make sure this will not happen :) ). We have been trying to get on Danny’s nerve, trying to do our bit in scaring him about marriage, but he had an amazing strategy to get past it. Leave the realization till the very end. Maybe we should learn from this. Back to the wedding, it was a very different kind of wedding. Danny was dressed more like a king and Renu wore a vest (must be Queen’s attire in those days). The Iyer conducting the wedding ensured that the bride and groom aren’t pained, and they smiled all throughout. As in any wedding nowadays, there were the great poses Renu and Danny had to stand for (nicknamed grandpa-grandma poses by Dharma an Rk). They continued to stand and greet visitors, and posing with them in the reception. All said and done, I wish Danny a great married life with no more night outs or weekends in office.

Some sad news
Well all the above seemed to pretty positive and great things to enjoy. But life is always even. You never keep getting goodness all around you. One of our teachers, Rams, from CEG, had committed suicide. He was more then a teacher to us. He moved with all of us like a friend and he even accompanied us to our final year trip to Kerala. He is a teacher students listened to, so such an asset ending his life seems such a waste. I hate it when people can’t face their lives and try to take the short and easy way out. So on hearing the news I was angry, but after sometime you cannot stop feeling the sadness of it. May his soul rest in peace and his family recover quickly from this terrible loss.

Well friends I am not sure when I would blog next. More hectic work is ahead.
So until next time, ciao and have a great time.
- Palani.

Mumbai, world class

2005-01-03T12:49:00.000-08:00

We (Bk, Olu, DC and myself) had planned a 4 day visit to the commercial capital of India. We were to join four others in Mumbai (Thanix, Naveen, Shakila and Aparna) and have lots of fun. The mundri kotta DC left to Mumbai from Chennai on Friday night itself (24 Dec 2004). We were supposed to catch him and the mumbaites on 25th Noon, but thanks to Mother Nature and Air Sahara our flight got delayed by 8 hrs.

25th:
So when we were greeted by our friends in Mumbai it was around 9 PM. We went to the famous marine drive after leaving the girls to get back to their houses. After some time there we had to pacify our hunger and we went sniffing for non-veg. We came to rest at a street parked with lots of cars, pavements filled with chairs and tables and people everywhere. This is where the famous restaurant 'Bade Miyan' is situated. Well am not sure we can call it a restaurant, as we could get not much rest and had to stand like waiters near those small tables for someone to finish their meal. And after some 20 mins of wait, we got to sit down. We were supposed to be then 6 in number, but actually only 4 were mentally present and 5 were physically present. Thanix was in a world of his own, aroused only during this phone conversations. Navkum disappeared whenever he saw an STD booth and the shopkeepers had to close the booth to get him out of there. Well atlast he joined us for dinner. Though this place is a roadside restaurant the food was amazing. Summa mathi mathi kozhiya vettitom. One exception was diet-Olu. Diet pannanunrathukaga pavam Olu vegetariana maritan. Avan sharayum sethu nanga mulunginom.

After a stomach full of Chicken we went to the hotel room where we were put up. First proof of Mumbai being the commercial capital was seen here. There had been almost no decent hotels available for stay and Thanix barely got this room. Also the rates were exhorbirant, they cost like a 3-star hotel's room and all that was in the room was 2 cots, an extra bed and no moving space. But that apart, we had our obvious fun. DC left with Thanix to stay in his house. Then we decided to play Rummy and play till everyone wins one game atleast. The game went on and on, and there was kadum potti between Naveen and myself. But after sometime Olu wanted to sleep. Viduvoma without honouring our pact of everyone winning a game, no way. Wach round we had to slap and wake up Olu to continue the game. Everyone except Bk had won a game. After a long time Bk with some 4 jokers claimed he has won, only to be have declared wrongly without any Rummy. Ayyo it was 4:30 then I guess, and after some time we succumbed to our body and our will was lost.

26th:
Woke up pretty early around 8 AM. Yeah being a s/w engineer does teach you these things. Thats when we slowly started getting news on mild tremors in Tamil Nadu, but since the news channels didn't anything on it we got ready and left for our oor-suthal. We had hired a Qualis and after picking up everyone we went shopping. Well thats another great thing you can do in Mumbai. We went to Big Bazaar and bought lots of clothes. When we could no longer stand we called it quits and left for Juhu beach. By this time we got the news about the Tidal wave but we didn't know about its seriousness. We had a good time at Juhu beach, playing football with Navkum's slippers then kicking water at each other. Finally we were all covered with salt water and we left to Appu's house for dinner. Poor Appu's mom, she would have had a tough time cleaning our mess. In Appu's house we got to see the news and the seriousness of the situation. Then we had a sumptuous dinner, with more than 10 - 12 dishes and 3 - 4 sweets. After all that great food of we left to Mahabaleshwar. And as we left Shakila got bulb after bulb trying to tell goodbye to Appu's dad. Finally she gave up. Naveen did not join us to Mahabaleshwar as he had some office work on his US trip to be done.

This night to we were determined not to waste, so we started playing UNO cards. Thanix especially was to keen on sleeping, but our ruthlessness prevailed and we made him play. Appu with her very secretive style of play took the lead. Then bk and myself took it on us to make sure Appu's points increase by leaps and bounds. The lead was going up and down and the only problem was that we had frequent interruptions in our gameplay by a sottai called DC. You don't need a watch to measure 1 hour when you are traveling with DC. Every hour we stopped for DC to get to his normalcy and soon we were in Mahabaleshwar. We got a couple of rooms to get some sleep and refresh ourselves.

27th:
Once again amazingly we got ready and checked out by 10:30 AM, missing our initial estimate only by 30 mins. We had out brunch and got our hands on some fresh strawberries. BTW, Mahabaleshwar is very famous for its strawberries. Then we hired a local guide though we had Mr Nix. We went to a temple, were bk scene ottufied and didn't even step inside. Then we were off to some sight seeing points. There was the suicide point and some 5 others along the same place. The view was great. We drank water from a spring there. After spending some quiet time there we left to see a Strawberry farm and then to a jam factory. This is were Olu's talents took over. He was possessed by P.C. Shriram's ghost and he tried to capture all plants in the camera. I am sure you would have seen some of his exploits. After he had photographed every flower he set his eyes on, we pulled him to leave to Panchakani (a cleaner place supposedly).

We went to a plateau and it was like a carnival there. There was para gliding which except Shaks and Thanix, everyone took part in. Though we thought it could be scary, it was too slow and okayish. After going on a thala suthra ride we left that place to Get back to Mumbai. The return journey was fun as first myself and then DC got to drive. The Pune - Mumbai expressway was amazing, the only inhibition was that it was a travels car and so we didn't race the vehicle. Also there was some interesting discussion on what is a perfect love was going on. Thanix made an excellent statement that "Perfect love is the one which leads finally to sex." Well may be Thanix was in his philosophical best. Then DC took over the wheels and his serene driving style made everyone sleep, including himself. For some 10 - 15 seconds everyone in the car were asleep. To compensate for this DC made a sudden break awakening all of us in one go. We reached Mumbai quite soon around 12:30 AM. We spend some time to convince Shakila to sutify with us the next day. After a lot of cajoling she agreed. We lft Appu in Shaks place and retired to Thanix's place. Had a wonderful sleep.

28th:
We had our brunch as usual and went to watch Polar Express in Imax Dome theatre. It was an amazing experience, madeit almost life like. Though the movie was good, I dozed of for some 10 seconds during the movie. 3 days of fun has had its effect. Next we left for Gateway of India with all of bk's persuation. It was a dirty place with no place to sit or stand in the shade. After some time we went on window shopping and the stroll was pleasant for the eyes. We had our lunch, in a restaurant were a married girl and her mother on the next table were ogling Olu. But Olu after a few reciprocations rejected her, seeing that she was already married. What a noble heart Olu has. We then walked to Aiyakar Bhavan (Appu's dad's office) and dropped her there. We got loads of chocolates from her which we kept munching on our way to the Railway station. We got tickets to travel in the local trains in Mumbai, a great adventure indeed.

When we got into the train it was quite empty as it was a starting station and we got place to sit. This made us doubt what others had told us about the risky trains of Mumbai. But we were not betrayed. Two stations before the one we had to get out Thanix asked us to go near the entrance. Bk and myself did so. DC and Olu laughed at us saying "Ennada eppove poi nikkiringa". We inched our way towards the entrance. Then our station came. The train stopped for aroung 16 seconds. 8 seconds for people to get out and another 8 for people to get in. As Thanix, bk and myself got out the crowd stared ouring into the compartment. It gives you an impression of a bullet train rushing towards you if you stand in their way. So the "Soll pechu kella" Olu and DC could not get out of the carriage. They got down in the next station and took a taxi to meet us. We changed trains and were ready to meet them. Also Shakila had to catch a third train to get to her place and she did so. Trains are much faster way to travel in Mumbai and they are very efficient. Every 3 mins you have a train, and you can see an electronic count down for the trains to arrive. DC and Olu joined us like after some 15 mins even though they just missed one station.

We went to Thanix's place packed our stuff and were ready to leave. Naveen met us and after our goodbyes left back to office to get on with work. We boarded the train back to Bangalore and most of the train journey was resting and reading. We were back in Blore on 29th 10.30 PM. I had still a couple of days of vacation to relax. So all through the week through the new year I was just lazing, watching movies, game, go out and eat, and put on weight. I must have increased by atleast a couple of kgs last week.

Back to Mumbai:
Well I still have to justify that Mumbai is world class. Well in Mumbai you have expressways though not like the Autobahn's they are like no other in our country. You see traffic, shops open 24/7. You see girls clad in minis and revealing clothes at 2 in the night. But they are not afraid neither are they teased. People oggle them, and they don't seem to mind, but there seems to be no eve teasing. There were some really cool huge skyscrapers, if not 100 floor high they were many 40 floor high. The train system, the roads, the taxis, the autos, everything seem to be more organized than anywhere else in India, and such a huge city with a population of 1 and a half crores, were ppl all walk at the same speed in the railway station, which is double our normal speed, is just amazing. I get the feeling that Bombay has been planned 100 times better than say a Chennai, both being British strongholds.

After having such a wonderful time I sure want to spend some more time there. Hope I get an opportunity soon.

Please add your comments on this account as well as add more detail.

Signing off after this long account,
Love,
Palani.

Year end

2005-01-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

Personally the last couple of months of 2004 were amazing. Had lots of fun and good things were happening. I got awarded a couple of bobble head awards for my work in DCX team. So professionally life was going great. Also Olu too got a bobble head. Then we had our new house's house warming ceremony. Though lots of work still wasn't completed, for some astrological reasons it was held before the Tamil month of marghazhi.

Then came our (bk, olu, dc, myself, joining the hosts thanix, naveen, appu & shaks) vacation trip to Mumbai. For all the fun details of the trip, read my next post.

-Palani.

Good relaxing month

2004-11-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Its the week of Diwali, and its peaceful. Our site has gone live and you be the judge afterwards. You can visit our site at Dodge Build & Price, Jeep Build & Price and Chrysler Build & Price. We have started on the future release and have already made a couple of smaller releases after the first big one. All seem to be in good shape. All that remains is our signing of the Business Value deal with DCX. The day that happens we are all gonna party like crazy. The work in general has come to about 6 - 8 hours proper work a day. The rest of the time in office I just goof around. So all things seem positive and rosy.

Also lots more good things happening around. My friend Natty just flew to US. He works in Infy. Hope he's gonna have a great time over there, though he would have preferred someone also to be flying with him ;). A month back a couple of my friends Vijay and Dhana joined a company in Cyprus. But for them its going to be tougher to adjust, but hoping they too will be having a nice time over there. This time also seems to be having a lots of marriages. My friend Shobana's brother just got married, and another friend Prathap's brother is about to get married. Still hoping that some of my classmates will soon get married, it would be fun to pick on some one :).

Well life in Banalore seems pretty good. Nowadays, I usually eat out in the nights and am checking out lots of new restaurants in our area. Recently got a taste for Thai food and steaks. So each day I spend atleast a couple of hours in a restaurant. Last weekend Prathap had come to Bangalore for shopping. We went on a fun shopping spree, though had to stand for a long time. Well one thing was sure from that trip, each one have their own tastes. Also met Pravin (my classmate from school and college) after a long time. Then Monday night was Olu's birthday celebrations (Olu, again my classmate, colleague). Poor guy he was going to malai and still we kicked his ass. What goes around, comes around.

Well I couldn't get tickets to get to Chennai for Diwali, so joined wit my colleague, Danny to drive down in his car, a Zen. It was tiring but fun. Only bad part was that we started a bit late and had to travel some 4 hours in the night. But there was some amazing stretches of road for about 30 km, where the car never went below 130 kmph. It was a great ride. But just after that there was construction going on and the road sucked for the next 30 kms. Life is full of ups and downs. Man these things make me feel philosophical, maybe I am the next Socrates?

Well what else, just finished DaVinci Code. Good fast paced story, but not as huge as it was hyped, but a definite page turner. Well hope would start Ponniyin Selvan again. So that's it from me. Catch you all sooner.

Love,
Palani.

Light at the end of the tunnel...

2004-09-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

Once again, I'm back. Actually its amazing that I am blogging. I have a few issues to attend to, but I was too compelled to blog.

Work diatribe: (not that bad actually)

Work is still hectic. Our release is just about to happen and we are in the home stretch. The site looks really cool, I cannot believe its come from such a bad state to this point. So the excitement is making me put some inhuman hours. Nowadays my usual time to go home is 8 o'clock (in the morning :-) ). But this doesn't seem to frustrate me as I know the site is almost done and each bug I fix now makes the site a better user experience. One thing I am proud of Trilogy is how they have made me believe in Customer Success. They have brain washed me (for the better?) to just think of only the customer.

I think a few more night outs and the release must be done. Though I don't exactly mind working this crazy, am looking for this releases end. I want to have a few slack days. I am yearning to go back to 8 hours work a day. Also looking forward to the new TU people joining my team and the Business Units in general. There has been some rave reviews about them, just hoping our teams staffing needs are all met.

Trilogy also seems to be more prepared for the market competition and gave us a pretty good hike, though in this aspect you are never satisfied :-). BTW, according to the company I am a UI expert, esp in HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc. Something which I thought so less of in college. This experience has made me love UI and give it the respect it deserves. After all what is software/web without anything to see.

Fun:

With all the work around I had been looking for some relief. That seems to be coming in a weeks time. First the cricket's gonna start :-). No Sachin but it should still be a good show. And even better news its in Bangalore. Yipppppeeeeeeee. All from Trilogy are gonna rock the stadium on the 4th day, Saturday, of the 1st Test. This weekend we need to plan the funky stuff we wanna do.

Then the same weekend on Sunday, I'll be in Chennai, giving the test to the Annaites to get recruited.

Also there the good old F1 with all the uncertainties, Ferrari winning. Rubens or Micheal both are meant for the top step of the podium.

One thing thats improved is my eating habits. Now as I get out of the office I have my breakfast, either at home or outside. Lunch is the only one which sometimes gets delayed into a early dinner because I don't get up in time. Also my mom is after me to get into a proper schedule.

The only sad part currently is that there's almost no time to do anything outside of work or workplace. Just hoping and wishing this will change soon. Things are definitely getting better and ya I see the light at the end of the tunnel. But as they say, hope its not of an opposing train. See you all soon.

Love,
-Palani.

Some budhi at last

2004-09-06T04:07:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Am back. I am blogging after quite a long time. The times are running fast and crazy. There seemed to be little direction to where I was going a couple of weeks ago. All I did was work, work, work till you cannot hold yourself to the chair and head home then. And on weekends just hit the sac. But this lifestyle seems to have its effects on my body. So atleast now I have a short term goal. Live and work to get into a proper, effective, healthy schedule. I just hope as hell I am successful in this.

Right now am in Chennai, having a nice time. When you are at home you need to have very little responsibilities. But we all got to grow out of it. Yeah, thats tough but we got to.

Last weekend was also an amazing time. We had friends coming up from Chennai. Also the guys in Bangalore came to our house. We all drove to Hokennekal in a Bolero and a Ford Ikon. Man we had fun. There was lots of water, it bet even Niagara Falls (not that I have been there, but could you possibly sit on edge of the Niagara falls and see the water falling down right below you?). This time around while coming back there weren't any great adventures. The last time I had been to Hokennekal with my colleagues in my Maruthi 800, we had some major fun while coming back. Like in the movies, my car stopped while coming back. On opening the hood, there was smoke jutting out from all parts. We had dried out all the engine oil after the radiator water had evaporated. But this didn't turn out like a horror movie as there was a village where we broke down, which had all the stuff needed to get us back on track. Also the roads this time around were much better.

Movie Corner: The Karnata film association is acting in a really f***ed up way. They have a new rule not to run in the theatres, any new non-Kannada movie for 11 weeks after its release. They are literally forcing people to watch pirated movies. Because of this we took the chance to watch 4 Students in Hozur. It was a one messed up dubbing movie. Other than the songs nothing was good. Also found out that some of my office colleagues had been busy downloading some good dvd quality divx movies. Watched 'Silence of the Lambs' and Hannibal. These movies were grouse, yet good.

Sports Corner: Well the Indian cricket team seems to be getting back to their old ways. Hope they can stop the rot soon. And at last there's someone to challenge Schumi. The last 3 races are gonna be fun. The Olympics were also good, though I missed most of the action.

Well hope to get back to sooner than last time around.

Bye for now,
Love,
Palani.

Work and more work, and Troy

2004-06-28T13:37:00.000-07:00

These last couple of weeks have been a lot of work. The weekends seem to be the only reprieve. Hope I can continue not working in the weekends.

Well with even this much work I squeezed in a movie last Friday. It was the opening day of Troy in India. It was an ok movie. The movie at sometimes was infuriatingly bad and sometimes clumsily funny. But the end justifies the means and you end up being satisfied with the movie. The sets and the battles scenes were not extra ordinary. But the individual fights were cool. But the moral of the story is pathetic, so don't try to look for one. Waiting the release of Spiderman 2 and also the opening of the multiplex in Forum.

Hope I can blog more frequently.

Love,
-Palani.

Schumi rocks

2004-06-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

As I became more cheerful in general, so has the sports loving side of mine.

Schumi definitely rocks. 7 out of 8, is unbelievable. I am sure no F1 follower could have predicted Ferrari's dominance could be this big this year. I just hope schumi finishes with 17 out of 18 :-).

France pulled of an amazing win over England. Man it was like magic. More than saying France won it. It was like England gifted it away. Two goals after 89 minutes is too much. Hope France and England can put on a much better performance in their future games.

Then Pistons dethroned Lakers. Though my favs, Nets couldn't reach the finals, its good to see the Lakers beaten.

-Palani.

Life moves on

2004-06-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

Yeah, life does move on. Sadness moves away. Life is again filled with happiness.

"Inbathil pirandhu, inbathil valarnthu, inbathil madinthavan yarum illai
Thunbathil pirandhu, thunbathil valarnthu, thunbathil mudinthavan yarum illai,
Inbam pathi Thunbamum pathi irandum vazhvin angam"

One thing I can vouch for is that its our mind that dictates all this, and if we can think stuff through clearly then every mess will clear up. And to do this all you need is time and a good environment to sit and think.

My cousin's marriage was on 6th June, so I had gone to my native place, Virudhunagar. I went there after quite a long time. And I use to hate marriages, where you sit and get bored. But this time it was very refreshing to meet all my relatives after a long time. Also during the quiet time I could mull over the issues I faced. Man it refreshed me like anything. This set the direction for my week.

But the week was hectic with work and I did mention to my career advisor about my discontent on doing the work I was doing. Then came the fun weekend, man that was tiring. First on Saturday the whole company had a outing at Club Cabana. After the initial games, had a lots of fun in water. After a disappointing bowling tourney, went to the outdoor games. I played basketball after more than a year and it felt GOOD. I just want a bball court near our office.

In the evening there was some lucky dip kind of thing where I won a 500 bucks voucher, so with my pockets full hit the dance floor. But that day my intensity was knocked down with a few cramps and tiredness. But that couldn't stop me from getting an award for dancing till the day end.

Slept like a log but was awakened by my cousin remind me to meet him. Left after noon to his place, quite far away, and as was very near to his place, my car brokedown. Then it took about hour and a half to fix it. Then I went to a couple of temples with my cousin and his in-laws. First was some ashram on the way to the Golden Palms and then we went to Iskon. That was my first visit to Iskon in a year. It was a cool hangout actually, overseeing whole of Bangalore. It was very commercial also with pastries even being sold there. Maybe I should go there with my friends sometime.

Then we finished the day with visiting KFC on Brigade road and Harry Potter in Symphony, where many slept. Body aching from previous day, I had a gooood sleep. This week on Monday night I am told I am moved to another team, DCX retail, where the work is more challenging. Also my code freeze went pretty good. So now in much better shape than a couple of weeks before.

Hope to positive ever after....
-Palani.

A Mixed Week

2004-06-04T03:15:00.000-07:00

This post is mainly my polambals.

Lots of times people do things they regret. Maybe this week is when I have been doing regretful things. I just hope I understand. Life seems to monotonous suddenly. The worst part is that even after all the fun last weekend in our college get-together I am feeling so. Work this week has been crappy to say the least. And my actions seem even more crappy. Though I am not going to elaborate on what those actions were, I just hope I figure out my mistakes, and understand them.

Life is very mysterious. Why can't it be simple? I just read a forward abt How to live life. But its tough to follow it. Yeah I know everything is easy to preach but tough to practice.

Maybe I am getting bored of work, but the comedy is I don't know. I am confused. Rite now my work is to re-skin a website. I am pretty good at it I guess. But the work is very manual and painful. Can anyone suggest any good idea to relive myself. I don't think I can take a vacation now, but am doing quite a lot of traveling these days. Today I am going to Virudhunagar to attend my cousin's marriage.

Now to other side, this week was also quite fun. Yesterday we went to Harry Potter 3, premiere show. It was better than the first two movies. Also day before yesterday, the cause for all the confusion was also a very fun day. This is what is making everything confusing. Let me see how the future unfolds.

I have polambified enough I guess. Maybe my extended weekend of being away will help me out. I just need to give my mind a break from confusing itself.

Confused, and a bit frustrated,
- Palani.

My friends blogs...

2004-05-31T12:09:00.000-07:00

Like Senthil, let me also give links to my friends blogs so you can get more context when reading each others blogs.

Mappy Blogs - A funny, philosophical character, often very confusing

Senthil's Blogs - Cud be the next CM of Tamil Nadu or even the PM of India. Now getting more exposure in the U.S. of A.

Natty's Blogs - A man of principles. If there is going to be a revolution in Tamil Nadu, it cud be becos of him. Also one among the very few settled ;-)

Suri's Blogs - The next Richard Stallman. A hardcore Linux (sorry GNU/Linux) geek. Also a plain talker.

Dharma's blogs - A senior of ours, a colleague of mine, and a mind of no equal. Unpredictable.

- Palani

2004-05-31T11:52:00.000-07:00

Almost the whole attendance

2004-05-31T11:49:00.000-07:00

(T to B (L to R)): dsen, Pravin, chandi, 'saamy' srini, murs

2004-05-31T11:47:00.000-07:00

(L to R): bulb manohar, murs, vijay rag, pandu jan, 'manni' shobs, me pal, pravin

2004-05-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

(L to R): Chandi, sk, thalai, navkum, bk, manivel, olu (compoletely hidden) and saby baby