My Crazy Thoughts

To all my friends.. :)

2019-06-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

Today is the 1st of July 2019. Three years ago this day, I landed in Cochin international airport back from a trip across Europe after my job as a happy go lucky fellow who cared about anything, who wanted to live a impromptu life with no goals and no targets. There was always a small dream of returning to Europe and living there. But nothing solid. I was just a live as I go guy. Life has not been easy ever since. It has been tough. I know this because, I wish i could roll back this 3 years and start a different life. Somewhere along the way,I lost my thoughts and everything I ever had and everything I gained in between.

I am not saying I did not have a happy time. I am just saying that, it had been tough. The roller coaster of life had enough exciting ups and depressing downs but the general trend of life has been downwards. I cannot forget the entirely new set of friends and acquaintances I got during the last few years and each one of the trips I had and the travels in between which i have been throwing up on Whatsapp statuses. It was always a good experience and I appreciate all the warm gestures of friendship you guys made. That has kept me floating out here. I do not think, I can do this much further though. It was all good till date. I think it would unfair for me to try troubling you guys further. However meaningless my life is turning out to be, I will try my best to be a person who doesnt disturb anyone. I request you not to think that I was leeching on you guys till date. But I do not understand life anymore. I think, I have lost in my pursuit of happiness and just troubled all my friends unnecessarily.

I cannot forget the people who helped me through this past. I know I have been dependent on a few friends to the extend that you guys think I am just a disturbance. I am starting to not get called back, which is sad for me. I want to apologize, if you ever felt that I am just trouble. I didn't mean it. I would have tried to help you and get disturbed if the positions are reversed. I am thankful for every help and sorry for every moment, I barged on to you. I promise you that I will try to not forget whatever you did for me and I will try my best if an opportunity comes by to do you a favour. Just do let me know and ask if I can help whenever you catch a hold of me.

I still have a few help request to make and later write a few detailed thank you notes out here. Just wanted to say I would appreciate if you remember me as a good friend and as someone who cared about you. I will miss you all, but I do not want to trouble you further. I am taking a sabbatical from all friendships because I am turning out to be nothing but a leech in getting help and not doing anything.

Adios! Hasta la Vista!
Daniel

Life: The good things

2018-11-11T01:59:00.001-08:00

It is not always that I drop around to scribble nowadays,but not as rarely as the state of the blog suggests.There are a few incomplete posts that lie along in the drafts section and the few other depressing reads strewn over the World wide Web.

Life has not been very great lately. Things have been going away from plans, wishes and dreams. I do not know, what all i can be happy about.

But then since the last post life has had a lot of things happening. Life has changed a lot. The life is too crazy sometimes. Last time i wrote something here, I was sitting comfortably at my "rented" home in Norway and now i am back in beautiful Kerala in the comfort of my home. But comparing the two situation hardly does justice to the time that passed.The twist and turns of things that happened is simply overwhelming.

It was reaching the midsummer of 2015, around 1 year after the last post. The Oil industry i have been working was starting to show the troubles of a low oil price and things weren't looking good. The boredom of the job not turning out as exciting as expected was reaching its paramount places and though not really a big problem, light feel of racism was starting to hamper the life I had. Why so is a complicated answer that remains with me. Well so the trouble was brewing already.

In late 3rd quarter, the news finally broke that I will be let go at the end of the year and what i would have would be the the right to stay in Europe for another 6 months to look for a job. Since 6 years in an engineering job and 3 countries had really killed my interest in a job right then, I decided it was best to utilize that 6 months visa to travel Europe and then return to India and think about an MS later because i needed a break.

So began an exciting phase of life, unchecked unhinged traveling, meeting people, seeing places across Europe. The times passed quite quickly and i had been to places never heard of before, done things exotic for an average person and met some amazing people on the road. Then was the hard phases. On July the 1st of 2016, I was in India, jobless, no direction in life, nothing to look forward to other than that i am at my home comfortably.

So the idea that comes ahead next is the to do a Masters. While my idea was like, go back to Europe, a life i was quite a fan of, and i place i never got tired of travelling. What i had in my mind was a 1 year sabbatical travelling India and brushing up stuff a bit and then go after a masters in europe. But then now i was back in India, within hand's reach of my parents and all my plans kind of fell apart and i was doing a masters in a place near my home hardly 1 month after i landed and a week long short trip to meet friends. Oh well, i did not want to fight against my parents and follow my heart. Do I regret that decision here and there. But then I chose to accept their decision and try to find maximum leeway as i can in the framework. So decision was travel a bit here and there, finish masters and go further.

Now life never comes as it plans right. But life has not been entirely boring. 2 years after it, the masters thesis being completed. Riding to Bangalore and Hogenakkal in a bike, surviving an accident from the motorbike and adding a plate of titanium to my hand, traveling to Bhutan, Attending a Palliative Care Conference, Roaming around and exploring thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala, Having a lot of friends and few fans of a life lived, among other things.

But eventually I am stuck, I feel imprisoned somewhere i should never have chosen. But I have no regrets. Right now the effort is to break free from a situation i myself created because i decided to relax a bit. Is Life fun right now? No, not really. to paraphrase a friend of mine, I have become a person who was a high flyer, who had a life worth envying to a miserable failure in many ways and he did not know half the things, I was feeling miserable about.

Anyways, i think the time is coming. At least i hope there is some light at the end of this dark tunnel i am in, though i do not see much. But hoping for that miracle to save my life, and this is somewhere i will try to drop by more often. :)

So let us see

Norge-III: 1 year and counting

2014-08-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

It has been an year since I moved to Norway. After a year, how I feel is not as good as I imagined when i decided to leave the home country and go packing a year and 4 months before. I thought it would be easy. I was hopeful. It was an adventure I wanted to try for it felt great to imagine. I had great expectations. Guess I have to quote shakespeare and mention I agree 100% "Expectations are the root of all heartache". There is nothing much i can do about it. Yes, Norway was just another country. It wasn't the exceptional paradise of a country which I was hoping for. The difference that was expected was not there and the difference that was unexpected was hard to digest. It is not a bad thing. But not getting what you seek disappoints you. Not being able to accept what you get disheartens you.

Of course, The cold-hearted Viking land can sap out your mental strength like anything, especially if you are trying to fit in. It is a hard place to try fitting in especially when you don't look like anything that will easily fit in. The problem with trying to fit in a lot is that you start to loose out on what you have and will not get to where you are trying to. You will find yourself lost in wilderness, like the person in "The Terminal" having gotten off the plane and being able to get out of the airport. In a culture you don't understand, which wouldn't easily take you in surviving can be hard.

When i packed my bags to Norway, I was confident I can fit in. Being half a sociophile, I was confident adjusting to Norway would be breeze. But it was not meant to be. The thing about norway is it has grown up against a lot of challenges and the culture has grown itself a shell to survive the difficulties like it's climate.geography, climate and what not. The shell itself has made them reserved. I find it hard to adjust to that attitude. To converse freely with a person when you are talking to him at work and to not even say a hi when you meet someone outside work related meeting. I cannot understand it at all. It is as if they maintain two worlds seperate from eachother. One work and One life. May be the lack of life because i have been working so much in Asia where it is not important has made me unable to comprehend the idea, but it is not something I can adapt with. It is hardly few familiar faces i see in this world. I would love to see a familiarity whenever i meet that person again. I guess the problem with me is I'm not a good adaptable person. I have my own stubbornness in understanding and adapting. I cannot lose myself adapting to surroundings. I have my individuality. It may be my blessing, my curse.

I would assume my shoes is what a lot of people can just dream of, but as it is human nature, I cannot be satisfied with what I already have. It is definitely worth living however bad I feel about it. I have had a lot of fun over the last year, a week in spain, a weekend in Dubai, a day in Doha, couple of weeks in Brasil, a few trips inside Norway has always been lighting up my life occassionally. These fireworks that light up my life is better and bigger than before. It is something i will not have achieved unless I had ventured out here. But it is not what i miss.. What i miss is the people i had around who lit up my life everyday no matter how little it was. It is the moments of little light in a dark room i miss. It is the darkness i fear. It is that moments of darkness that disheartens me. I am looking for that candle that can light up the room, which I cannot find.

The question that keeps me wondering now.. is that whether i should give-up and try something else or keep trying. As a matter of fact, I do not know yet. A part of my heart is willing to give everything up and go searching for a new horizon may be a different venture , whereas other part of my heart inspires me stating all the facts and things i have pondered to keep trying, inspiring and thinking that i will get better as I'm subjecting myself to a very hard phase in life by exporting myself into a culture unknown. May be it is just that part of my heart thinks that the other option is option is too much of a risk or may be it is right. I stand perplexed what i should do. Should i quit or just keep trying to adjust to it is a question that bothers me everytime. Only time will tell. I'm hoping it will tell.

This is dedicated to some people who have helped me keep positive providing that small sparks of light in the darkness that keeps me going... and I wish that i get the mental strength to make my life extraordinary!!! :)

Tchau

Norge- 2! Post Winter Thoughts

2014-04-17T17:33:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since i looked back at this blog. It is not the lack of time. It is rather the lack of peace that kept me from doing that. There are things that bother me a lot. There are things that keep me up. There are things that drag me down. there are things that nudge me eitherways.

I'm in a situation that many yearn, a few achieved. Still why am I not happy? I think i judged a few things wrongly. I judged a few things might be easy, but it was never. I wonder anybody reading this is concerned about it other than me.

The first and foremost thing i learned from my six months in norway is that immigration into a different culture is not fit for a social parasite like me. In india, travelling was never hard for me.. That kept me from being a parasite of the same set of people. I always had numbers to call and couches and beds to stay in most of the places in India. Now that i left India and is all alone in this alien country. I feel the loneliness. I'm ashamed of being a social parasite like before,because the lack of network i have here.

Winter was fun with a bit of skiing, a bit of snowboarding. It is nothing great, but it was me trying to fit in,making a fool of myself in front of everybody else. But then as time passes the feeling that i don't fit in here is just increasing. The thought about going back and settling into having a quiet life is increasing. For the winter, i have been trying to fit in. Now i'm starting to feel that i don't belong here.

The trip back to india was just a reminder how easy, how fun it was to be there. I'm exploring opportunities and trying to come up with ideas as to what to do and how to do it. Walking a lot, getting a cycle, welcoming the spring is what i'm doing now, trying to keep myself busy. Yes, I'm lonely. Why so_ becauseI'm someone with a lot of special needs and comfort zones for myself. I don't like to be out of those comfort zones.

Does it have anything to do with norway? The answer ihave to that question, though seem unrealistic is a big "NO". As i mentioned, norway isn't a place suited for someone like me. It is more suitable for positive minded people who are self-confident, proud and motivated. All four of these qualities which i lack considerably.

What i love about norway is the fact thateven though the weather is cold you'll never find it difficult to findawarm smile from people working in theopposite direction.They aregood people. Well most of them. I wouldn't blame them for not smiling at my face, but I do appreciate the warmth of the smile, nodding of the head and the salutes given away during interaction with strangers.

Another problem is the work culture here. Having been working in multiple parts of asia, i am used to enjoy working under pressure. Pressure is what helps me prioritize. Here there is no pressure. That makes me lose direction in everything. I'm just not at all used to it. The life outside work is more important than work. Of course itshould be that way. I ain't contradicting having a life here. The point is I'm already a fish out of the water and the last thing i need is the glowing hot sun evaporating the watercontent from my body. And that is exactly the situation, that of fish out of the water on a hot tropical beach during hot midsummer day at noon time.

Hopefully i'll get out of it.. whether i'll be able to jump back into the water or the tide will rise to save me is a question only time can answer. you never knowmay bei will leave to breathe from atmosphere. let us see what happens.

Fingers crossed.... Thanks for reading...
Adios
Thakkudu.

A quick getaway to España

2013-12-31T01:42:00.000-08:00

It was a week into december, when i realised that if i take three days off from job (which i could adjust by working the days before and after), I could get a mammoth 12 day vacation (Here is where you say "All Hail Norway", may be i'm just used only to the overworking asian culture).

First idea was to get an interrail pass and jump on random trains across europe. then i thought "Wait a second! I don't have many friends in this part of the world to crash on unlike my last impromptu trip in India" and since i had some time at disposal to see europe a bit more slowly or just push that crazy trip sometime else, because i need some amount of planning for that without places to crash whenever you want.

Okay then, with the new arrival and strengthened base of ex-colleagues who are my current colleagues inside this small bit of forest around 30km southwest of Oslo sat together for a plan. Options were a lot as it would become the first travel outside Norway and vast amount of schengen area to see. We decided on let's travel south(literally) let us dilute the winter to the maximum. Options now where Greece and spain. Pretty easily, since spain was a more happening place with bullfighting looked much more attractive than the land of the olympic gods (sparing other insignificant detail like availability of cheap flights and availability of a good economical apartment for rent there), it was decided that we'll go to Malaga in spain. This place was situated well in Costa del Sol (literally "Coast of the Sun" what else do you need to escape the winter in "The land of Midnight Sun") kissing the strait of gibraltar with the balcony of europe and seemed promising. Now the dates, whatever decides the itnerary of a trip is the availability of the cheapest flight tickets, so mixing and matching and deciding, we ended upon on a 7 day trip utilising 3 holidays, because it was cheaper to fly that way. The plan was to rent a car a drive in spain. and the apartment availablity in malaga was two days from arrival due to the itinerary.Then we decided, let us do it crazy. Let us go to Madrid.

So in short plan a week before the trip, the itinerary skeleton is like this. Drive to Torp airport(70km further south) park the car get on the flight to Malaga on thursday 19th of December... Land in malaga, take the rental car from Hertz(BMW 1 series or Equivalent), Drive to madrid straight, stay the night directly to a hotel... see madrid next two days and drive down back to malaga that evening. Spent five days in Malaga somehow and then hop on the flight back. and the next week was to plan further details.

And not surprisingly, we end up on go as we plan trip for the next week (well at least we have bounds defined, good enough when bachelors are planning a trip).

So with all the scares of flying Ryanair, we reach the airport for a pretty decent flight and not so scary experience, we end up in Malaga. I think Ryanair is perfectly value for money, all airlines give you lot of luxuries and they charge you for it. Ryanair is different.The flight was a bit turbulent and landing was a fun event, it was so dramatic that the pilot got an ovation when the flight landed. I know it is not everybody's acceptable level, but suits me. The way they wrote the inflight magazine(surprisingly free to take home {since Ryan}) was entertaining. Well enough of the flight.

We walked to the Hertz car rental to lay hands on our BMW for the week, and the news was apparently BMW 1 series is not available and equivalent Volvo C40 shall be provided. It was a tad disappointing. May be BMW would have attracted more pics with the car than almost none with the solid Volvo. It was an awesome car none the less. Then we got the GPS, set destination to Madrid and we were off through Kilometers and kilometers.. ;)

Our Ride

It was almost midnight, when we reached Madrid and settled down in the abode for the two nights. Next morning we were off to collect the madrid card which gives access to a lot of museums and discounts to tours.

First place in madrid and of the trip was Museo Reina Sofia, Pablo Picasso surrealistic painting like Guernica was seen more as a proof of people need not be brilliant to be famous. What else do you expect from engineers who go to see an art museum. Then we had signed up for walking tour in Plaza Major in the evening and hence the gap was like perfect for once craze a lot of people hold dear to their hearts, Football (Soccer for the US terminology where you use your foot ;) ).

We had seen Vicente Calderón Stadium of Athletico Madrid from outside which was near to our hotel, but how can we leave without one of the most glorious stadiums and inside of one(and was included in the Madrid Card), The Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. It was an awesome experience, and really seeing the pitch from inside the stadium actually inspired myself to put watching a Major Football match somewhere in Europe inside the stadium inside my long list of things to do. It was a long photosession mostly. walking on the pitch, sitting on dugouts, walking through the player dressing rooms, sitting on the stadium and memorablia purchase, they know well to sell stuff. It was pure awesome.

Then we went for a walk instructed tour through plaza major, a few interesting things were told which i have already forgotten, but then point to look up history of a place before going there.It is wish, i am no history major and history doesn't mean much but then it is fun to have tours and know stuff. A lot of knowledge gives you just pleasure for sometime before disappearing in the depths of your brain. This also among that kind to imagine and feel when we were walking. After that there was some night time walks, eating churros dipped in hot chocolate, getting some Tapas and then we ended that day.


Plaza Major

Near the Square

Next day, what we set on was for Museo Del Prado and Royal Palace of Madrid. Royal palace of madrid is like any other royal palace a lot of showoff that they were rich and powerful and they had huge tapestries and expensive decor. I didn't find anything that stood out, i was too probably worn out from seeing a lot of palaces. It was big one and art and sculpture isn't really my cup of tea.

Madrid Royal(Real) Palace

Then we went to Museo Del Prado which was hailed as one of the best things to see in madrid. I know what you are thinking what i had in mind before entering,"More art" and we did a quick flicker through the huge set of paintings seeing a few, to make sure we have visited Del Prado and checkmarked it and left, it was goodbye to madrid, Metro de Madrid, that made a few other metros i have seen look super luxurious(we chose if because a 2 day pass was better than risking around a rented car on the congested city, not really for the environmentally friendly reason)

Museo Del Prado

the small town west of Malaga on Costa del sol

Then we drove down south again to marbella where we had an apartment for the rest of trip. we reached there and settled down by midnight. Now it was different lazy part of the journey. It was in a true vacationing spirit and relaxed, we had five days to do everything we wanted. Most of the five days we were relaxing at home or doing some small things....:)

the road behind

We had disappointments, like Gibraltar being still a british territory and the royal Indian passport needed a seperate visa stamped to get in there(so something we wanted to do was gone). we weren't keen on going for the long drives to many places like balcony of europe, granada,sevilla etc either. Bullfighting which was trademark of spain was off season. So we went to a sweet slumber in and around the place. I also finished the second DORK book by Sidin vadakut and picked up another book(Seven Days by Deon Meyer) which was lying the apartment and read through it and was interesting enough to keep me reading through.

A spanish Bull ;)

First day, we went to Peurto Banus a rich place where all the big big people park their yatches and have fun. It was all ferraris, prosches, aston martin etc. The orange Mclaren stood out. the view was scenic and good.


Definitely, an eyecatcher

View from Puerto Banus

Next day we went to Gibraltar Faroe a fortification near malaga. It was also nothing special, but the view of the sierras was simply breathtaking and we just roamed around the place and walked to a nearby beach called malagueta. It was beautiful place.

The Marbella Bullring, Plaza de Torros, sadly offseason


A view of Sierras from GIbraltar Faroe

Beach of Malagueta

Next day we went to a mall nearby shopped myself a pair of polaroid glasses for no reason and was just mall-walking. Nothing special. Then we went throught peurto banus on night again to see how it was. dropped by the HRC there and then came back home.

Our Humble abode for the week

Then came the christmas day, since most things will be closed and we were in the ending mood of the trip, and the climate wasn't the most pleasant, I just got out of the apartment and walked south seeing mediterranean and headed for the nearest beach with my camera and roamed around for sometime.

Medditaranean Blues

Lashing Wave at Puento Romano

The rainy cold beach

The next day morning we packed and left and nothing special really happened. The flight was more normal and since it was day after christmas, flight was almost empty and return journey wasn't as exciting as the ongoing one... ;)

So i return to norway to find it still green, no snow, nothing... was disappointed at first glance. This is not what i expect of norway.

Let me end this post on the musing i ended the trip with..
"Costa del Sol is amazing. It is among one of the places, i had have a villa if i had truckloads of Cash and This will not be the last time i visit Costa del Sol and/or sierras. I'LL BE BACK"


Just in case somebody wants to donate me a villa, this view looks cool, similar would suffice

P.S: Events in tale might be dramatised... if you don't like it please let me know... i'm not gonna change it... too much work.. but as every boss says, I appreciate feedback, positive or negative. :)

P.P.S: Thanks to a few encouragements i have recieved, and the many discouragements i haven't received, I'll continue scribbling here

Norway!.... Moving Here

2013-11-25T11:03:00.000-08:00

After a long time, when i'm writing this post a lot of things have changed. when i wrote the last one i was around in Singapore. Now i have moved around 58 degrees of latitude North and 93 degrees of longitude West. A lot of choices have been made. Did i do the right ones? Only time will tell. But then I thought may be if i take the time to note it down, might help somebody understand a fewpoints and make a few decisions. I wouldn't say that this post has no other motivations other than reopening the blog like doffing a few rumours and doubts from the minds of people around.

I have a reasonable doubt how to structure this post and how can i convey everything i want to convey in a single post. Where to start and where to end still eludes me, but i have to start now anyways.

Was moving to norway an easy decision to make? No... not really. ... Everybody thinks "What do you have to worry about when you have a staggering paycheck?" and everybody wants to jump into the ship. Little do people realise the hardships beyond the converted value of the paycheck. The paycheck in my humble opinion doesn't probably mean anything beyond the converted value that can go on matrimonial profile with a star value. People just think "He must be making tons of money. Lucky Bastard. How can i get a job like that( Please Don't take this personally if you have asked me this question. Not intended at anyone, it is very generic and you are not alone) " To everyone here, i just want to tell "Once again, Money is not why i moved here! There is something called 'Quality of life'. This is a nice place to live." Like 'with great power, comes great responsibilities', 'with better Quality of life, comes greater expenses'.

Another reason why I moved here is i wanted to see Europe, brilliantly placed in Schengen visa agreement, is this one and only one country for which my job experience was relevant in Europe. (UK was another option, but Norway is much easier to migrate with a job than UK i believe) If i had a choice, i wouldn't have moved to Norway. This doesn't mean i have something against norway. If i could choose, Germany would have been my number one choice. Probably because of the Automobile fame. The name which has always been impressive throughout the history of the world in last century is Germany. Norway was always a silent spectator. It had been godforsaken before the onset of the big money and the discovery of huge reserves of Oil in the Northsea. At least that is what i have heard. Not sure i have known much about norway before i started working in Oil & Gas. This is just the impression you have from outside.

So how do i find Norway. What i'm really impressed with Norway is the culture of the people around here. The people are not hard to mingle with. Very friendly people and as my couple of groups of IIM eurotrippers say "it is safest place to live in whole of europe". I surprisingly discover from their accounts that europe isn't all that cheerful place you imagine when you are back in India. But i dare to say norway at least is and at least till they came around i thought europe was all like that. This is a safe place, nice place if you want to raise a kid safe and sound this might be the place you are looking for. The attitude of the people is what makes it safer. When i rewind, I can say singapore is one of the safer places in asia, But the fundamental difference between singapore and norway is that, the norwegian safety is part of their culture and in singapore it is more of an induced, policed discipline.

Language here is not a hard barrier, because most people here know English. Not at all hard to communicate, but if you are here for long it is good to know Norsk or Norwegian as the english say it. The language is similar to english and not a hard one to learn as far as i have ventured. (Disclaimer: I haven't ventured much beyind the bare basics and i'm not resposible for any hardships caused) Communication is much better and easier around knowing norsk because all signs and writing you will only find in the Norsk mostly and even shopping you probably don't get very many english description of products on the back. Mutliple languages are limited to the Scanduinavian languages. What is the big worry in the era of Google translate anyways?

Weather, as you can imagine the Land of midnight sun is no way easy. Even living at the southern norway. It gets dark very easily and it's already cold in november and the winter temperature peaks in -20's (that's all hearsay anyways, but accurate) and hence the winter so harsh, summer usually pleasant with long sunny cool days, best of which i missed sitting around in India. but then it is something i don't regret.. everybody deserves a break from work. Travelling 8,500 km with no strings attahced and seeing a lot of friends would never happen like that ever again. That was so much fun.

The topic is drifting, and nothing much more to say... After all this do you think i'm happy with this? I have things that i miss.I have to adjust to an entirely different culture, a different way from the life i have known for last four years with regards to work.. Immigrating myself, becoming a NRI, leaving India and a lot of friends behind.. There is a lot of challenges which i face which at times make me think, whether i did it right. Then there are things that come around and pat you on your shoulder, and say "All is well". I would leave it for time to tell... but there is definitely a lot of light at the end of the tunnel

More to follow... Hopefully...

Tioman islands: A Photolog of a memorable journey

2012-07-10T05:01:00.001-07:00

This is an attempt to photo-log my trip to the aforementioned islands, which i have already fallen in love with. This post should be ridiculously long with the all the picdtures in them. You can read a text version HERE.

Tioman is a place I feel, I should go a couple of times more at least, with some extra days or weeks in my pocket. This post is dedicated to Harish, Sreehari, Shahabaz and Paul Jose. If this post ever sees light, which I sincerely hope it will.

As always the trip begins with someone who has been there. This time around it was Harish who had been there. I have heard about this island for quite a while from this guy and that it has been the most amazing place he has ever been. I kind of hoped everything was true. After two days I can just tell it was very very true. Here I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Harish for introducing the place to us and to Paul for receiving what Harish said in full with extreme enthusiasm and inspiring the people around for a trip.

Then there should be someone who is interested in organizing it and with some enthusiasm for a weekend hangout. There was a couple of colleagues that way too. So it happened. Here the thanks goes to Sreehari and Shahabaz. The trip was planned out in meticulous detail, ever closer than i have ever seen a trip planned, even more than the planning of one of the trips i enjoyed most, the trip to the Himalayas by one of the people whom i believe can plan the best. But still it doesn't beat the latter in execution for many reasons which shall be purposefully omitted, because it isn't that significant and is rather personal preferences and this doesn't make it a bad trip. It just didn't make it all the way up the top. Just a little bit below. But works for me. :) No worries there.

So it was saturday morning, the van(since we were 9 in all) was intended to leave at 3:00 am so that we complete the 2 hour journey and immigration from Singapore to Malaysia and be off for the first ferry that leaves to the island. All thanks of scheduling and planning to Shahabaz, execution worked out pretty well.We started off by 3:15 I think. Then a quick breeze through Singapore-Malaysia immigration and we were travelling quickly towards our destination enjoying within the van.

Venki... rocking as always... Sreehari.. blinded by flash as always (Photo: Ankit)

One of Paul's priceless expression's

Photographer Gary is so proud of his achievement and Ankit is looking amused.

Stopped transport is always a photography opportunity..

The big organiser.... Note the hand position

Now you know why i asked you to note the hand position

Sreehari, Prerna and Ankit :)

After that people were pretty tired and from the early morning awakening, the next one hour i didn't hear anything. Probably everyody was in the sweet slumber already. I took the liberty of trying to keep the driver awake by starting a conversation with the driver. Talking with him and sharing a chat i managed to keep him awake for most of the journey and by the time sleep came again for him we were safely off in the ferry terminal up in Mersing.

Mersing at last and the wait for the ferry!!!

Then we got the previously arranged tickets and waited in the queue for a while and we boarded the ferry for the 1.5 hour+ long ferry journey. The sun was about to rise from the east and we were heading north-east from mersing. Then it was all time for photography for a few crazy people and slumber time for most.

The rising sun! (Photo: Sreehari)

Water droplets!! another Photography favorite (Photo: Sreehari)

Sweet slumber... long journey on the seas...


Sight of the islands... (Photo: Sreehari)

Welcoming Party at the jetty!(looked more exciting in real)

Our ride with the welcoming party... :)

The party, The welcoming party and the ride.

Initial sights of tioman by the party

A budding coconut... in an island with a lot of coconut palms

Morning show!!:P

The view from the island

The walkway from our ride to the island!

Look who is posing with the kitten.... :P

Now once the enthusiasm for the photographers have settled it was time we go searching for the main event of the day, Scuba Diving with all the doubts regarding knowing swimming for scuba diving and all the fears everybody set foot on the path to the Scuba place.


To the place...

Proof of arrival

different view of the island (Photo: Sreehari)

The sights of the islands just reminded me of sweet old home

Prerna, Ankit and Niyati on the Most popular Transport of that part of the island (Photo: Sreehari)

Gary with his soulmate :P (Photo: Sreehari)

The walk was not far, but definitely lengthen by the hungry souls and photography. Then since we were 9 in total, we had to split into 3 groups of 3 since maximum for a group was 4 and it was kind of better to have 3 3 3 than 4 3 2 or 4 4 1. ;) That also meant long time in wait because three groups had to go in.

Scuba discovery was structured like, You have initially watch a video to give you a theory experience, Then you have a big tank in which the trainer will teach you basic Scuba diving tips, and then the diving in open water nearby the coastline. So only one group can be in training in the tank, so that meant waiting... and it meant photography and roaming time for others. So the initial group to go in was me, paul and shahabaz andn scuba diving was all about excitement and fears, and the most excited and the most confident team had to go in first ;). Never the less the Dive was a nice experience from start to finish. Swimming through the open ocean was really awesome and the reefs were good. Seeing clown fish for real (had been a fan since i saw a photo of it first, and also NEMO was unforgettable memory in that matter). and lots of fishes who were looking surprised of the divers coming their way.. Probably it feels so because they don't blink any eyelids ;). Experience cannot be explained in words

It's scuba time. In training Pool, (Photo:Sreehari)

In the training Pool (Photo:Sreehari)

All set to go open water (Photo: SReehari)

Underwater Pic. (Photo: Lisa @ B&J Diving Centre)

Returning after the dive (Photo: Sreehari)

The Second Team going in

The third team (Photo: Shahabaz)

The full team with The diving instructors (Photo: Sammy @ B&J Diving Centre

Ferrocious Look...

Onshore Photography ;) Venki! (Photo: SReehari)

Island Transport!

Dived with and proof provided by Andre @ B&J Diving Centre (Photo: Sreehari)

So since we were the first group to go in we were out of the water first and we had time roaming around to takes photos across the area. One by one the other groups went in and they came back. Then it was time we check in for our accomodation for the day.

The beautiful shell arrangement found ashore

Posing for pictures

Landscape

One of the mesmerising views

The place name was Tekek and was a lot farther down the coastline and we had to cross a hill(not too big) before we can get a Cab. We started walking and across a hill to reach the next area. From there we had a pickup truck(The Cab of the island) and after while, when all the people slowly and lazily came together we left for our hotel. Soon after an exciting journey behind the cab, with a lot of sways and swings we reached the hotel.

The transport to accomodation

On the way

At the accomodation

Accomodation was all set and everybody was all fresh and now i was nearing evening. Not wanting to spend an evening in a vacation spot sitting in the hotel room we decided to venture out. So it was afternoon, we got out of the hotel and took the shuttle to the entrance of the resort. This still was pretty far from the actual "Tekek" ( Marked by a Ferry and Airport). So we had a volleyball and which was a fun thing on the beach. Time was spent having food, watching the sunset, playing beach volleyball and beach soccer and as always photography.

Day 1: Evening Walk

Beach Volleyball.... ;)

Dosthana pose?

After a fun and tiring evening on the beach, we started walking back talking about what to do next day because we hadn't really planned anything for the trip except for the Scuba that came with the package to the resort entrance were we will get a shuttle back to the hotel collecting the food for the dinner on the way from Tekek to the entrance. That was the end of day 1.

Day 2 was sweet old normal sunday in the beginning with waking up at 8:30 am at least for me. Then by now we had decided we'll go snorkelling at 6 places and return in time to freshen up and catch the return ferry at 4 in the sole interest of Mr.Basheer. So quick freshening up and then we took the shuttle to Tekek and had some breakfast and got on the boat to get ready for snorkelling. Then the speedboat journey was epic and was fun and then snorkelling at the first place was a nice experience. The second place was fun. The third place we had already familiarised with snorkelling and was getting to start repeptitive. Missed not having an all weather camera/an underwater kit for my camera very badly.

The ride

The way....

One of the photography opportunities ;)

All ready for snorkelling


Floating in the waters.. snorkelling

The Final Spot... mesmerising stuff was below what you see ;)

Then it was already lunchtime. Then we went for lunch at one of the beaches. It was souvenir shopping time for most and photography time and just our plans for a quick lunch overshot by just half an hour. AFter that we decided we just go one last place and finish off with snorkelling to save our ferry schedule. The last place was really amazing over and above the three places, in my opinion. After that we pretty much drove to the nearby beach which happened to be inside the resort and alighted there and walked back to the hotel

Breaking for lunch at a beach

The jumps of excitement: Ankit, Shahabaz, Sreehari

The return.. another welcoming party


somewhere on the way

Another view


Views on the way

.And after a quick change of clothes and check out, It was the expected time to leave for ferry already. Then we went out back to tekek, we realised we were actually half an hour early for it. Giving time for another photoshoot for me. Others were pretty much in the return mood and already out of excitement.

The part of bidding adieu: everybody is tired

At last after a lot of wait we boarded the ferry. Then I realised there was an option to stand out of the ferry airconditioning which was too cold for me, enjoying the view and the breeze of a fast moving boat. Guess what... More photoshoot opportunities for me. After a 1.5 hr photo session in different directions of a moving boat, we reached Mersing back again. Then we found the cab and got in. Everybody had their light snacks and food and it was time to go again.

Another Tourist....

Another boat on the way

The boat's flag

Back at the Jetty and end of a trip

Another journey through malaysian highways and customs and immigrations, we were back in our above by around 10 pm. Thus ended an exciting and overwhelming trip to Pulau Tioman, Malaysia. :)

The post had begun as a narrative and become a Photolog (Phlog??) than a narrative, probably because I decided this was more beautiful than I could explain in words. Need pictures. Could have done with a lot less probably but I thought I'll upload a lot of pics. Hope you enjoyed it and has some comments to jot down.

Thus ends a very very long post..

Cheers
Daniel

Tioman islands: A travelogue of a memorable journey

2012-07-05T08:03:00.001-07:00

This is a story about a trip to the aforementioned islands, which i have already fallen in love with. May be I should go there a couple of times more at least, with some extra days or weeks in my pocket. This post is dedicated to Harish, Sreehari, Shahabaz and Paul Jose. If this post ever sees light, which I sincerely hope it will.

As always the trip begins with someone who has been there. This time around it was Harish who had been there. I have heard about this island for quite a while from this guy and that it has been the most amazing place he has ever been. I kind of hoped everything was true. After two days I can just tell it was very very true. Here I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Harish for introducing the place to us and to Paul for receiving what Harish said in full with extreme enthusiasm and inspiring the people around for a trip.

Then there should be someone who is interested in organizing it and with some enthusiasm for a weekend hangout. There was a couple of colleagues that way too. So it happened. Here the thanks goes to Sreehari and Shahabaz. The trip was planned out in meticulous detail, ever closer than i have ever seen a trip planned, even more than the planning of one of the trips i enjoyed most, the trip to the Himalayas by one of the people whom i believe can plan the best. But still it doesn't beat the latter in execution for many reasons which shall be purposefully omitted, because it isn't that significant and is rather personal preferences and this doesn't make it a bad trip. It just didn't make it all the way up the top. Just a little bit below. But works for me. :) No worries there.

So it was saturday morning, the van(since we were 9 in all) was intended to leave at 3:00 am so that we complete the 2 hour journey and immigration from Singapore to Malaysia and be off for the first ferry that leaves to the island. All thanks of scheduling and planning to Shahabaz, execution worked out pretty well.We started off by 3:15 I think. Then a quick breeze through Singapore-Malaysia immigration and we were travelling quickly towards our destination enjoying within the van.

Everything was going good like that, then I found myself in a familiar situation, owing to the odd timing we chose for the journey. The driver was starting to tire out and sleep off. That was a curse of the timing, when it got scary enough, we asked the driver to stop if you are sleepy. He also understood and the next place we stopped and driver went on for a power nap and everybody went out stretched out and went out for a photography session.

After that people were pretty tired and from the early morning awakening, the next one hour i didn't hear anything. Probably everyody was in the sweet slumber already. I took the liberty of trying to keep the driver awake by starting a conversation with the driver. Talking with him and sharing a chat i managed to keep him awake for most of the journey and by the time sleep came again for him we were safely off in the ferry terminal up in Mersing.

Then we got the previously arranged tickets and waited in the queue for a while and we boarded the ferry for the 1.5 hour+ long ferry journey. The sun was about to rise from the east and we were heading north-east from mersing. Then it was all time for photography for a few crazy people and slumber time for most.

After around 1.5 hours we sighted land and the beautiful waters of tioman and it took 10-15 minutes more for us to to reach ABC jetty(moniker belonging to Ayer Batang Chalets, and the first two being the name of the place). Jumping out of the ferry was quick and we had a beautiful welcoming party whose sight we enjoyed. Everyone was admiring the stunningly beautiful waters soon and everyone was up photographing the beauty and a poor kitten around there that happened to get there. It was quite a stunning view and beautifully coloured nature not too much disturbed by it's arch enemy, The mankind.

Now once the enthusiasm for the photographers have settled it was time we go searching for the main event of the day, Scuba Diving with all the doubts regarding knowing swimming for scuba diving and all the fears everybody set foot on the path to the Scuba place.

The walk was not far, but definitely lengthen by the hungry souls and photography. Then since we were 9 in total, we had to split into 3 groups of 3 since maximum for a group was 4 and it was kind of better to have 3 3 3 than 4 3 2 or 4 4 1. ;) That also meant long time in wait because three groups had to go in.

Scuba discovery was structured like, You have initially watch a video to give you a theory experience, Then you have a big tank in which the trainer will teach you basic Scuba diving tips, and then the diving in open water nearby the coastline. So only one group can be in training in the tank, so that meant waiting... and it meant photography and roaming time for others. So the initial group to go in was me, paul and shahabaz andn scuba diving was all about excitement and fears, and the most excited and the most confident team had to go in first ;). Never the less the Dive was a nice experience from start to finish. Swimming through the open ocean was really awesome and the reefs were good. Seeing clown fish for real (had been a fan since i saw a photo of it first, and also NEMO was unforgettable memory in that matter). and lots of fishes who were looking surprised of the divers coming their way.. Probably it feels so because they don't blink any eyelids ;). Experience cannot be explained in words. So since we were the first group to go in we were out of the water first and we had time roaming around to takes photos across the area. One by one the other groups went in and they came back. Then it was time we check in for our accomodation for the day.

The place name was Tekek and was a lot farther down the coastline and we had to cross a hill(not too big) before we can get a Cab. We started walking and across a hill to reach the next area. From there we had a pickup truck(The Cab of the island) and after while, when all the people slowly and lazily came together we left for our hotel. Soon after an exciting journey behind the cab, with a lot of sways and swings we reached the hotel. Accomodation was all set and everybody was all fresh and now i was nearing evening. Not wanting to spend an evening in a vacation spot sitting in the hotel roam we decided to venture out.

So it was afternoon, we got out of the hotel and took the shuttle to the entrance of the resort. This still was pretty far from the actual "Tekek" ( Marked by a Ferry and Airport). So we had a volleyball and which was a fun thing on the beach. Time was spent having food, watching the sunset, playing beach volleyball and beach soccer and as always photography. After a fun and tiring evening on the beach, we started walking back talking about what to do next day because we hadn't really planned anything for the trip except for the Scuba that came with the package to the resort entrance were we will get a shuttle back to the hotel collecting the food for the dinner on the way from Tekek to the entrance. That was the end of day 1.

Day 2 was sweet old normal sunday in the beginning with waking up at 8:30 am at least for me. Then by now we had decided we'll go snorkelling at 6 places and return in time to freshen up and catch the return ferry at 4 in the sole interest of Mr.Basheer. So quick freshening up and then we took the shuttle to Tekek and had some breakfast and got on the boat to get ready for snorkelling. Then the speedboat journey was epic and was fun and then snorkelling at the first place was a nice experience. The second place was fun. The third place we had already familiarised with snorkelling and was getting to start repeptitive. Missed not having an all weather camera/an underwater kit for my camera very badly.

Then it was already lunchtime. Then we went for lunch at one of the beaches. It was souvenir shopping time for most and photography time and just our plans for a quick lunch overshot by just half an hour. AFter that we decided we just go one last place and finish off with snorkelling to save our ferry schedule. The last place was really amazing over and above the three places, in my opinion. After that we pretty much drove to the nearby beach which happened to be inside the resort and alighted there and walked back to the hotel.And after a quick change of clothes and check out, It was the expected time to leave for ferry already. Then we went out back to tekek, we realised we were actually half an hour early for it. Giving time for another photoshoot for me. Others were pretty much in the return mood and already out of excitement.

At last after a lot of wait we boarded the ferry. Then we realised there was an option to stand out of the ferry airconditioning which was too cold for me, enjoying the view and the breeze of a fast moving boat. Guess what... More photoshoot opportunities for me. After a 1.5 hr photo session in different directions of a moving boat, we reached Mersing back again. Then we found the cab and got in. Everybody had their light snacks and food and it was time to go again.

Another journey through malaysian highways and customs and immigrations, we were back in our above by around 10 pm. Thus ended an exciting and overwhelming trip to Pulau Tioman, Malaysia. :)

A little too detailed.. ain't I? never mind! But still I don't feel good without sharing all those pics.. as a picture speaks a thousand words. So Coming Up Soon! Without the Photos the excitement cannot be explained... So coming soon... The "Phlog" edition ;) Wait and see..

Cheers
Daniel

after a long time

2012-03-04T07:46:00.002-08:00

Blogging after a long time.... Isn't a rare quote to my blog... I am no regular blogger.. Rather the time which I get to spend for that purpose is very less after a lot of worldly things.... Whatever this time I hope.. I'll get some more time to be spend with this blog... But not definitely today....

posted from my new Windows phone..ya it works ok...

Am I Bipolar?

2011-09-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

A month before I wouldn't have asked that question, because I didn't know what it meant, neither had i really heard about it. Thanks to a coincidence,I know it. If I know it, why the question "am I"? I guess I don't know it enough and the answer I feel now is yes. Thought i better invite some opinions on me.

Let us start, from the story of how i came across this question. One day, I was just bored lying around in the bed watching and refreshing my facebook as always... the feed was getting pretty boring, i just dropped into another timepass which i had discovered not so long ago.. Omegle. Frankly I was surprised by the person who showed it to me, it really changed my opinion about him. That's another story, another episode, somewhere in my autobiography if i ever get to write it.

So what you find in Omegle is generally a lot of ppl who want to make full use of anonymous random chat to unleash their inner beast and fantansies. The concept of talking to strangers and making friends is generally hard to find. But then at times, the search for it is so easy since mostly it won't go a lot beyond two sentences unless they are around interested in finding the random stranger to just talk. Again what omegle is doesn't look like the heading of my post.

So this day I lie around i guess it should have been a saturday night because i remember it was going pretty late already, and the friday was an amazing day and i wouldn't sit late unless it is a saturday or friday... :) So I get bored of just refreshing my FB page, I go to Omegle searching for people who don't disconnect after two lines. I was about to get bored of that as well and planning to go into the sweet slumber, when I meet this 15 yr old from england who seem to be someone like me, interested in talking with a random stranger out of boredom. The conversation goes on, i find that by coincidence I have someone who thinks like me and surprisingly young and sensible. So I like find people who like to think like I think, because they are hard to find. Yup, I know what you are thinking. Yes I do think pretty weird for a majority around the world. So in the end, I found a friend from half way around the world(may be just 1/3rd around the world by location). I am certainly still impressed by what i know of this friend, but that again is not a reason why i wrote this blog. I'm just getting distracted and distracted. Let me try getting back to the Topic.

So I end up finding the blog of my friend. How did I end i finding it? To be frank, it wasn't hard. I happened to check out new and "3rd" person to follow my blog. Wow! I fell upon not just a blog but another fact. Yes, My new friend was bipolar. So this induces the natural question in me, What is "Bipolar Disorder"? Then my recent natural habit, when I come across new stuff happened. What was it? Yes, of course, Putting the word "Bipolar Disorder" in google and clicking on the Wiki link that comes up. Why don't i do the Wiki search than search in google and click the link. It has been a habit or i enjoy autocorrect option or just love the plain google search too much, may be the easiness of googling from chrome. (I hate the fact that i am dependant on the fact that I'm so dependant on a company named after a typo founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.) I'm drifting from the topic again.

So as I read through the explanation put together by people collaborative effort founded by Jimmy Wales. I end up asking myself the Title of this post. Why I asked that question, is a fact that still evades me. I guess I might be either being a hypochondriac or I am thinking right? That is a question I still need to find answer on.. and I don't expect a Yes or no answer by the end of this post. Currently the scope of this post is just the search for the answer and putting together my thoughts on Bipolar disorder. Now that I'm aware of something called "Bipolar Disorder", let me being on the better of the two insane options i have here. Being a hypochondriac.

I will not rather go through the painful reasoning why I think myself is bipolar. But I guess I had rather take another path of discovering what is Bipolar and my own speculations and thoughts on seeing it differently or rather put in my weird thought on it. I know i might not be really understand the issue and here i take disclaimer for the information on this blog once again. These are my thoughts and might not be correct, be free to put forward your views on the comments.

So the google definition of Bipolar goes like this "Bipolar disorder is a condition in which people go back and forth between periods of a very good or irritable mood and depression. The "mood swings" between mania and depression can be very quick" The courtesy goes to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov I believe.

I wonder how come the random switching of moodswings is so much of big issue. I might be being optimistic but definitely i guess the people who fit this description are people who have a higher range of moods. That can be positive too. With the ability of going to the extremes and think well too. Yes, I do wonder why depression is considered as a condition. I know the bad effects of depression like suicidal tendency. But the mind of an individual is his/her individuality. The fact that his/her mind is different from a big majority doesn't mean that it is mind that needs to be faulty. Yes. I'm trying to prove that thinking weird isn't the meaning that there is something wrong with the mind. Tell me a good reason why being different is Crazy.

I'm rather worried about how world considers a Psychiatric patient. Why should you consider a person who is crazy different from a person who has a heart problem or a fever patient. The biggest issue with the mind is not the problem, but the way the people around you sees you. The way the world considers you changes. The fact that the persons who proved to be great after being considered can be presented as a publicity stunt, but if the world standing against you is kind of challenging and trying to prove you are better is fun. But the people who are good enough to stand up against the whole world is not very high. Probably people will commit suicide due to the depression of having the depression than actual depression, because once you are diagnosed of a psychiatric disorder people tend to take more precaution when you interact than the most contagious fatal diseases that are all around this world. Being different psychiatrically is not a bad thing, It is just being a different kind of person, Just like you look different from other people around you. We need to help others. We just need to bring them closer to our heart and help them become more customised to live like what the general majority thinks is the "normal" way to live. Keeping them away just sends them farther apart from the majority.

The world has to change and just let us make it a better place to leave for everyone. Let us hope it will once become like what is good for everyone.

I guess I drifted around the topic too much already and this is what i have for the day... My Friends' Blog can be found here.... It as well as the author might be of help to someone who is in search of the details of Bipolar disorder. SO worth spreading around. Courtesy: Miss. Bee :)

Singapore 2

2011-08-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

Singapore though small cannot be a single post... I can talk quite some stuff on it. May be at least my blogging gets better.. Just hope.. ;)

Anyways what do I talk about? The culture here is pretty good, european or american.. whatever you want to call it. Probably it is because the population dominated by professionals and rich people helps, but not just that definitely. Rules helps as well.

Here is place where, when you walk through the road with your dog for a walk you should be carrying a bag with you to clean up in case Dog decides to poop in mid walk. The way discipline is maintained is surprising, provided i hardly see a cop car on the road. How many people will do the same thing somewhere in India where rules are not kept even if a policeman is around, thinking that we can bribe him a small money to prevent yourself from getting fined. May be even the bribe is too high or the penalty for accepting a bribe is too high and risky to attempt it.

Another thing is this is a safe place and a well connected place with good public transport facilities. Last day I was waiting for the public transport, I just noticed a little girl around 8 years old also waiting for the bus all alone. Her name was "eleanor" I think because the book she was reading had it written on it. The thing I was amazed at seeing the confidence and easiness with which she was travelling. I wouldn't be confident enough sent a little girl around like that in India.

But then life here pretty different I say. i had say it does well to keep it tourist friendly and attractive, sometimes it is costly to spend the money to enjoy the attractions. But being on this small island you can see a lot of stuff, some may be a copy of western counterparts, but it has which boasts of being the best or biggest or unique in the SE Asia or the world, some beautiful skylines. May be for a newbie to foreign land does find that a lot interesting.

Life is not bad, when there is places to hang out, when a country is walkable from one end to another in a day or two at max... ;) and you have amazing public transport systems and you have a lot of time to waste and you are lonely. It is fun.. Just fun.. More to come... :)

Singapore.......

2011-07-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

Singapore is fine city is one of the most common t-shirt u see when u roam around in Chinatown to pick up one. It is true. Here every silly breaking a rule can be fined well. It has it's own advantages. The discipline does come at a good way. though not very really enforced i see that the rules are kept here whereas other way

When I first came in singapore, I noticed all the people had a different outlook. Being only the second country i'm in, I was definitely amazed when i started and still am. It is a really clean city. But then it is not fully as good as I saw first. But the fact that I come from India did help in me not being bothered by it all. I should say the large number of professionals mostly foreign is definitely helping the modern singapore. But the main difference between India and Singapore is People here consider this their homeland and love it and try to maintain it good, whereas Indians are bothered only about their own things and complains why the garbage they threw on the pavement. The 300 S$ fine does help them to be better, but not just that it is also the outlook of the people.

If you cycle through an underpass here, the fine is a 1000 S$. If you cross the road not through the zebra crossings you can be fined 20 S$. If you feel thirsty in the MRT or Bus and have a sip of water you can be fined 500 S$. But I haven't seen it enforced anywhere but there is a lot of disciplne in the place. Everybody keeps the law mostly, unlike India where people is just checking out, "How the rules can be broken?".

( The casino entrance... there got some money from me too... how much..? that's a small secret)

People are rich here undoubtedly, but the difference is there they are ready to pay taxes or they are forced to because they have a correct and direct way. If you are rich and with your luxury you definitely pay more. If you have a car, that is if you ready to pay a lot of money to auction a COE("Certificate of Entitlement") to own a car for a ten years and to scrap it unless you are to pay again for another COE(don't think "hey we have road tax!", this money is huge), you will end up paying for parking and road usage and like that. People here don't mind it, may be we convert and think. But being willing to pay out so normally is difference in their outlook. But then the money makes the country good.

(one of the many)

The rules here aren't very liberal and it is not simple rule. I can say the media is restricted, duopolies. telephone operators, public transport, casinoes, Mall builders. Don't know no surety of healthy competition here. But nobody is bothered. I guess everybody just bothers their business.

(check out the cheap price tag)

The polity here is also I had say a bit shady may be, but also plans the development. Though there is a lot of restrictions and fines. Gets the feeling everything is good and there is a lot of money flowing around. Seeing a lot of maserattis, porsches, lamborginis, ferraris, bentleys.. Everything has a richness touch to it.. Big malls and all costly and funny. The money is there, but there is a lot of people living normal professional life as well. Can't help feeling suspicious and jealous of a good place i guess. I dunno whatever it is Singapore life feels good.

(A view of singapore skyline at night from top of Marina Bay Sands)

But then Singapore is a cosmopolitan city, they do well mostly. But i cannot say the discrimination based on their origin and race is non-existent. Well nothing can be that perfect, after all they can see me as an intruder that creates a lot of problem to their homeland. I don't want to create a problem here, but i guess I don't look good enough. It always makes me think "Do look like a wicked crook?" or something. I don't blame them. I guess I ain't very handsome either.

Anyways I enjoy the city, had some fun last time 7 months and a small island 43 kms long and 25 kms wide and saw a lot of stuff and i guess though the solitude hurts at times, it was fun and at times i had good company of people around here. I really don't know what to do this time around. Let us just wait and see.

(small model of where I was. The Marina Bay)

I just wish I could do something to make India better, make it get a bit more respect from people, and not just be a cheap and disgusting tourist place where you can spend less money to enjoy a different kind of vacation.

(Another Singapore Night Skyline from top of Marina Bay sands)

Check out more(some are better)pics of singapore on My facebook profile.

http://www.facebook.com/thakks

The professional pathway.. 6 years and counting...

2011-07-28T04:46:00.000-07:00

Being a professional was never a dream of mine... may be it was for my parents... The life had no much option anyways talking from a kerala viewpoint for a person who was studying well (by marksheet values). It was just result of me avoiding the opportunity to stand up to a 100 question and chosing to "not to chose myself" when it was important. I didn't want to chose and I didn't stand up to my parents theory for my future..

I should say the 4 years training to be a professional was nothing but just fun of life.. and learning some lessons of lesson never to be forgotten which was worth it. The life in campus with all the people around was memorable. The learning to be professional was not there, Neither was the learning to be an engineer. The "learning" was plagued by problems and learning the extremes to which the glorious "NIT" rulebook which was a compilation of rulebooks available to the rulewriters.

Due to the luck of my ancestors, or due to a mistake somewhere in the equilibrium of the world, i get placed against all odds. If i thought, life was good.. I was proven wrong pretty quickly.. just as the celebration was getting over. I fell into final and critical issue after a long break, as if the mistake in equilibrium was fixing itself.The professional life probability hadn't left me too far, a miracle sends me through to the professional life destroying any chance to escape by a hair's breadth.

Then with no much time left in the clock for joining the dream stream of millions, i get into a train to hyderabad for the first and last time till date... and reach there after a whole 24 hrs of travel and on july 15th 2009, i become a professional "theoretically". and after a fifteen days of training with a lot of things to wonder about and with a lot of things to dream.. actually kind of looked forward into the professional life for the first time in life..

Then started the adventure, an adventure that lets you lose your dreams, but still end up learning a lot. The adventure that has now covered over a astonishing 2 years has consumed mostly all the dreams i had. Reasons like my love for learning more and more and excitement to understand the technology involved is keeping me through the counting time in this(If you think it is kind of a show off statement, I beg to differ, to catch up with people who has learned engineering theoretically in the best institutes of India was difficult for a engineering ignorant like me, and i kind of enjoy catching up..).

But I'll definitely dare and is sad to say that there is a "sword of Damocles" held in its place by a lot of reasons and unhappiness hanging on top of my professional life and if you ask me why I can't tell, because only the good things need to be applauded in public. Bad things should be discussed behind closed doors.

I know not anywhere professional life cannot be too better, but it definitely be better. the better it gets, more happier we get. I have seen a lot of people who are in a worse situation than me, but generally human nature we compare it with the best. There are a lot of better things also in the world. i don't want to search for anything better in my professional life, I'm just bored of it.. I'm disappointed.. I had say after all the "great expectations" I had in the beginning is the root cause of it. May be it was a bit too much to believe the sweet talk blindly, may be i was just wishing too much more than i deserve.

Whatever After two years, I did learn a lot of engineering and lot of life and truths. But now i definitely have no idea where to go and neither do I have any idea "What do I do with my life?" and "What do I want to do with my life?".

Disclaimer: I don't know whether my thoughts felt offensive for anyone or everyone. But this is definitely my feelings and my expressions. Leave me to it.

Mind, choice and the right one.

2011-05-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

What makes every creature in this world unique? It is "it's mind". Mind in itself is a poorly identified entity. Mind is sum of all about the thought processes that a creature has. It is the undefined force that rules the neural systems of an organism. It's not just that but also the force that controls the decision of each and every cell individually. Yes that is the God in your system. It is the undefined force that has not revealed itself to the scientists yet. It's what people are constantly in the search of. It's proper definition will be the end of the world as it will define the salvation and the existence of a being. It will lead to a understanding of the force called God and redefine the world. So it will never be defined. That is my mind's opinion

Now you might have a difference of opinion right? You can chose to agree or not. But then there are lot more of choices in front of you. You can chose to partially agree, you can chose to angry at me... etc etc etc... What is the importance of choice? i should say there are a million options that can cross anyones mind. It just one in a million that's chosen. From the advent of life, it's all about the one in a million choice that is taken. The choice is all what matters. Every instant in your life happens based on what you choose. It is your choice that decides how you live.

There is always a choice, which can never be changed, neither can it be left unchosen. It is the choice that makes you unique. It is your choice always how to express yourself or even not to express whatever matters. So what is a right choice?

There is nothing that is right choice. The choice you take might be right for you and wrong for someone else. There is no choice that your mind can take that doesn't affect the world, but only the degree of it matters. So your right choice will not be the correct one and so there is nothing called correct choice. may be you can tell there is a best choice from your side. There will be someone who thinks another choice could have been better, whether you know or not. Every decision you take makes a definite ripple in the world around you, but just the strength of the ripple and the way it affects the others in this world matters. For every force there is an equal and opposite reaction says newtons law likewise every good choice has a equal and opposite bad effect.

Sometimes you might never be bothered, it might not be related to you at all. but sometimes you find yourself at the receiving end of things and you think you made a bad choice. But sometimes you never know, may be you could have made a better choice. But you cannot blame yourself either because you never know. Then you try to make a choice to correct your earlier choice. Does it really negate the effect? not really. A ripple cannot cannot really eliminate another one. May just make the effect lighter.

So be careful when you chose make sure you are making the right choice because a thought before you take a choice might save a lot more than you could ever imagine.

Why did I even write this post. I guess it was my choice to be writing all this in and waste some of the we cloud that google is offering. Some wicked timepass i guess. If you stumbled upon this piece of thought somehow, I hope this helps you in someway.

Kudos

Back to Blogging?

2011-05-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

Long time it has been since i blogged... Yes, It has been more than an year.. But then life was that of a social networking addict or kind of living on a virtual world where life is so far away from truth.. The realisation that true life is not very far from what you live and is much farther from what you see on social networks made me deactivate my Facebook account. So good old timepass called blogging is back....

Though I ain't good at my english, just letting out my feelings doesn't hurt and not too many people do actually read my blog... So the feeling of letting out of the system is there and you haven't actually let it out of your system. Is that good enough.

I guess blogosphere will be fun. Hopefully that is better life i enjoy than just trying to gossip and peep into others' life through the world of virtual reality called facebook. Then the virtual network of friends is no longer exciting. Some way through it you feel the fakeness of being in it. But long long time i managed it so that i don't miss a good thing of good people finding me though among thousands of bad things. then one day the hope for that ran out and i deactivated it. Let us hope it is for good.

Let us see what i think.... :)

IPL :)

2010-04-25T14:03:00.001-07:00

You can obviously see that this posting is by a frustrated mumbai indians' fan as you read through... Please read through keeping that in mind..It is not a presentation of statistics but just a frustration... If you expected for a lot of stats... i'll come back to you for that :)

To be frank, IPL is a good entertainer(i'm not saying about the cheerleaders, but about a game of 3 hours here), but a lot of money being moved around fooling a billion people... Oh, i'm blabbering all this after following IPL a lot... Why i followed IPL? Because as far as I know him, sachin is great player... And has even greater personality... And i like a lot of my brothers and sisters is a die-hard fan of sachin's game and personality...

With a lot of impossible turnarounds and 6 of 8 teams competing for 3 open slots till the second last day of league is surreal... The loser's final ending up in a very low standard game even after being a replay of last years final... And the final being interesting till the 19th over and teams being at the equal position more than three times and teams competing to score the slowest 50 in ipl final .. Even at the end of 16th over kevin pollard is held back after being padded up from the end of 10th over and harbhajan singh being sent up at no:3, all having pollard in the pavillion..... You got to be kidding me...

Somewhere i feel there is a lot of betting around more than the previous editions with a lot of turnaround games...At the end what you can always say against it is one mistake can cost you a game.. So every game is a gamble...then its sad that its the gamble than the skill that wins an IPL... Its just about how to gamble successfully under pressure... No wonder Warne took the first IPL home so easily.. :)

But none of these has made my list of things about IPL...
1. Firstly Why does a league have a knockout round?
2. In which league the players have no say in which team they wanna go to...
3. Indian players is not limited to play for anywhere in india... Seriously i'm expecting a kochi team with 0 from kerala, since only known cricketer from kerala has so great a profile that he will have to pay millions to the franchisees to get into one..
4. There are no sixer's in cricket anymore ... There are only DLF Maximums... And almost every ball is a citi moment of success for someone or a karbon kamaal catch... Or a "would have been a karbon kamaal catch"
5. I dunno what is so forefront of technology is the blimp and why to bring to the "MRF Blimp" is very important so that every 2 balls commentators need to mention either the "view from up there" or the story of dennis lilee and MRF Initiative..
6. This time they discovered the 7.5 minutes strategic break was long that people will change channel.. And to shorten the break between the overs they put ads in between the balls literally... IPL is all about ads ads and more adds... I am expecting the logos of companies on the face of players bats and on bowlers hands and ball as well as on the pitch next time...
7. The teams are broken out and made into 10 teams.... That means its an all new IPL and all new 10 teams...
8. Deccan playing in navi mumbai against mumbai.. And voila believe it or not its the deccan chargers home.
9. Why there is no orange helmet when batsman always wears a helmet?
10. Why india only has three spots in champions league while there are country with only 1 team...? Because india is the place where you can mint money on cricket...? Why don't bcci and IPL at least pay the tax for the profit they make? Do Some good for the country... Why not...

* all the trademarks used in the post belong to their respective trademark owners... :P.. That's i meant it...

About MNIK, V-Day

2010-02-14T10:54:00.001-08:00

[Warning: This Post may contain Spoilers regarding MNIK]

I should have made the yesterday's post today, because the movie was so inspiring about some of my thoughts. The thought about the role of religion and how religion should be considered really is something worth a thought. To be frank, I went to the movie expecting a negative review as a post because of all the hype around. But then it did impress me. After all it was at least a bit serious movie, the kind I like, because it had a great message to convey, the fact that 'Muslim!= Terrorist'. Maybe some things were a bit too unrealistic, but then movie had a theme around it and it was a very nice experience and that is what you have to expect from a commercial Indian movie. The Characters in the movie are really touching and well executed. It also pointed out ways in which inequality and enmity between the races and humans still exist widely in this world. The way the movie was presented was good and is worth watching. It also vaguely portrays the effect of money on the relationship as well as on the love between humans. Where there is only a little bit of money, a lot of love is always there. The 'Wilhemina' episode did really point out this. All the love and nice relationship exists when there is very less money. Yup I am coming to an old quote... "Money is the Root of All evil." I love to criticise rich people when i am not that rich. But then I have felt it if you have a lot of money, You always will get distracted. There was some created jokes also, but for me it seemed out of place. Still I am so happy that I got a chance to see the movie this week, or else it would have ended up in the long list of I would like to see movies :)

Regarding the V-day, though i don't like it because it is a one of the highly hyped marketed day and because i don't have someone to spend it with, it might be a good thing to happen for a lot of people around the world especially for those who don't get time for expressing love in their busy life. But as a person who is against the people who make money out of the world like the card manufacturer's which has a board "Today is .......... Day. Wish your ....................... on this day with a Gift/ Card from Us" almost every day. I think they are the people who think how humanity should work. Why should everyone profess love on Feb. 14. What is so great about the day? According to the Greeting Card Association 25% of the cards sent in a year are for valentine.(Information Courtesy: http://www.theholidayspot.com/valentine/history_of_valentine.htm) So they are the one's who need to celebrate. I believe in Love.. true love.. not a joke. And i believe if two people love eachother enough they can celebrate every day in their life. They'll never need a valentine's day. But then every body will tell "True Love" is a myth. But i believe in it until proven wrong. Let us see. Marketting people are making money out of of people in many ways. That is what I hate about living in the globalised world. Everything is money and there is not much time for money becoming a religion. Even Human lives have no value compared to money. There can be a better life in this world. But for the world to change it should change from inside but if we think let others change first and prove successful, then only i'll change, you'll never succeed in changing the world. There are two ways one can end up if you try to change the world. Either as a nice person or as a crazy person. If you don't like what i said, i'm quite happy to end up as the crazy person..... ;) ;)

Signing off once Again,

Daniel (Thakkudu)

About God, Religion and Indian Democracy

2010-02-13T09:16:00.001-08:00

[Authenticity of some of the Data I used are questionable and might be a mistake from my side. Please do point out if anything like that comes to notice]

You might be wondering in the eve of Valentine's Day, didn't I get a nice topic? I said that because even I am wondering why am I blogging about this on this eve. But then I do not believe in Valentine's Day. Why do you need a day to celebrate if you are in love? Every day of your life can be celebrated. May be I don't have a lover is the reason I am thinking so because it seems everybody is celebrating it. The media is celebrating it, a lot of people are buying millions of cards and gifts. Still me who is jealous all the lovers of the world is thinking, it is just somebody making profit from the whole world. It is just a fact that there are a lot of days which cover up most of a year. I can even ask who said new year begins on January 1 and how January 1 different from any other day in the year except for the people who market and make money out of it. But then I am wandering of the topic. Just ignore it as a mumblings of jealous guy on the eve of the V-Day. Lets come back to the topic. Each word was chosen for a reason. All these words were put across my mind in the last two days and i do have something to mumble about it. :)

Let us take the first word, God. The obvious question is that do i believe in God. The answer is a Yes and a No. How can i say that is a valid doubt. I would like to mention that i am a bit agnostic. I know that was a bit obvious. But i do believe something that controls the world. May be it is what is called fate. I was always fascinated with science, but i have realised that science have a long way ahead before it can define the force that defined the small probability that led to 6 billion human beings with intelligent brains and a countless other organisms from a chemical solution. I had become a fan of science when I read through Stephen Hawkings' Literature and GUT. But then soon after I realised even GUT was just a myth. It was an impossibility, There were some things beyond the four forces of Physics. Another thing was that i ended up in a better life than my past. Life is fun once again and i started believing some things will happen good in life to everyone. I started believing in my destiny. That was a change in my life. I would never again deny the existence of God, unless i get enough proof. I hope that is what i have tell about the three letter word "God", the name man gave to the force that rules a lot of probabilities. But still that doesn't make me believe any of the millions of Gods i see around living in India, why?

Thus I come to the next word, Religion: Religion was created by humans as the old famous lyrics say "Manushyan Mathangale Shristichu, Mathangal Daivangale Shristichu...". I don't believe in any of the religions. Religions were created by the old thinkers so that layman lives properly, the holy books should be read as an instruction set to live properly, the morals to be followed in human life explained through fables and stories. The problem with the world is that it either makes the thinkers holy and sacred or leave them as ignored beings. To be frank i believe in the Quran concept of Jesus than the Bible version of it. Jesus was a thinker and prophet. The Bible is a collection of glorified stories about him. This looks like the familiar Da Vinci Code concept, eh? The Hindu Mythology has millions of Gods but still there are situations in which The Thrimoorthies cannot do anything and leave it to fate. The blind belief in the religion is the problem. It should be considered as just a guide. Religious extremism is a bane to the whole world. I hate the way extreme religious spirit is used wrongly. The religion has been used as a tool to create enemity between the people which it was supposed to unite. None of the religions tell about anything other than loving the others. Still they come up with ways of killing people in the name of religion. I am not proposing anything here. I am just quoting a lot of people who understood this and have fought for this like Sree Narayana Guru. But now even the followers of the same person is becoming really . The people who understood religion never wanted a religious bias. It is quoted regarding the partition of India that "The irreligious Jinnah wanted a religious state, and Gandhi who was wholly religious, wanted a secular state." Religion is set of restrictions for the people so that they don't cross their moral limits. It was devised so that if people won't understand by preaching, let them be afraid. But everybody takes it as "The Book" of Living. It should never be like that. :(

India is world's largest democracy and i would mention one of the worst. Mahatma Gandhi had a great vision about India and so when India was partitioned he was hurt. I guess seeing the current state of India, I feel Godse just did something good to him. It would have just had a lot more of pain if he had to live more. Likewise Dr. B R Ambedkar had a great idea when he wrote down the constitution of India. If he see the way it is being used he'll kill himself. He had a vision which is now distorted. All the loopholes in the constitution are properly misused. India is divided into a lot of way, religiously, language-wise. The Unity-in-Diversity is like the strength of Indian Cricket Team, It is just in paper. The fate of Indian Hockey team which earned a lot of honours compared to Indian cricket team provides the importance of money in India. The Hockey doesn't make money, so it is not promoted (Surprisingly the world cup is being promoted by its main sponsor Hero Honda considerably), whereas BCCI which has money enough to buy-off ICC rules and keeps generating money. Indian Politics is essentially the game which the rich Indian people play on others. The rich gets richer and the poor keep getting poorer. And the salaried middle class pays a quarter of their income as IT in order to pay off the Members they have elected who very comfortably and silently increase their salaries and perks when they needed by themselves. I am not telling that India is not getting better at all. But it is getting better much slower than it should. I hope it'll get better as it gets more educated and politics gets more sensible.

Signing off

Daniel.... :)

...About the Media Infested, Senseless & Stupid Life

2010-02-10T11:53:00.001-08:00

To describe the world i live in by the above adjectives may be considered as an arrogant outlook, but let it be. My Outlook may be a bit different from yours, and i would describe it in my way only because that essentially is the purpose of this blog. For every adjective i have mentioned above i have my own reasons. I will explain it along the post.

So the first doubt should be why did i consider this beautiful world infested by the Media?

I am in support of the fact that media is good as a tool for passing the information. But the competition in between news agencies has already grown to a great and unhealthy level. There are question you can ask me like "Why am i so bothered about the media now?" or " Where did i get so bothered about the unhealthy competition?". I am no saint in anyway. I'm telling that i had to experience it twice in the matter of days. If first one was not that serious, the next one bothered me a lot. The first one happened last week when the veteran Malyalama actor "Cochin Haneefa" died. All the Malayalam newspapers websites screamed "Cochin Haneefa passed away" by noon it even gave a time of death, later they corrected, he was critical. The second news was today. I wake up in the morning and when i switch on the news channel, The news was flashing "Hero Honda buys out Kings XI Punjab". It even mentioned that it was bought for $260 mn. And in the evening i have news channels screaming quotes From Preity Zinta "We havn't even thought of selling Kings XI Punjab" and Hero Honda "We are Main sponsors of Delhi Daredevils and associate sponsors of IPL3, We haven't even thought of buying Kings XI Punjab" So where did all the news came from? I had also heard that Reliance & Sahara was planning to buy the EPL Club "Liverpool" and soon i saw a quote from Ambani denying the possibility. Is it that the news channels just takes up any rumour and spreads it because it will be sensational? I guess the bigger problem is if one channel reports about an incident, the other channels don't want to be left out and starts flashing the news even without confirming it and soon follows an "avanlanche". Now the field of IT is so developed that if you want it you can make a rumour you can spread it very easily. As an example you can search Bill gates' daughter on images.google.com. (Thanks to my friend who pointed out the thing though i didn't accept the truth when he said it ;) ), Nowadays even I am sure every news channel has one reporter each glued on to all the other news channels as well as twitter so that if they flash anything relevant, they start flashing it on their own channel. I hope this has got you some idea about why i think media is too much nowadays.

The next adjective is Essentially Senseless & stupid.

When i talk about the sense of the people, the older generations had much more. Should i say sense or love for society, i am confused because though there is some relation, the general world has already forgotten it. Living in this world is now for every individual a thought about self-survival. It is just the survival of the rich. The world is after money. Nobody is caring about the society and environment except for the fame that comes with it. Hardly you can find a true dedicated person to the world. Every man (i guess that includes me.. that is unless u consider me an animal) is caring about self. Then comes money and family. At the last and of least concern is the society and the world. It is funny that the existence of self is more important than the world itself which is an essential thing for the self to exist. Stupid is this world that runs after all kinds of luxury. The Life in earth is no more interesting. Those who have money has power to control the people who are in power and those who have power controls the world just considering their own good. Indian Democracy is in the limit of senselessness, The soul of Ambedkar should be thinking why i wrote the constitution up like that. Whatever was nicely suggested was never taken into consideration. The schedule cast and tribes were supposed to be removed after 10 yrs, but never because it'll result in loss of votes. Then the democracy is like being sensible and supporting the people who elected you. Now the democracy has ended up as blind party politics. If the opposing party brings up an idea, even though it is good oppose, and if it is from our side, support unconditionally. This should change. What happened in Kerala in terms of SmartCity and Expressway is the perfect example of lame politics of Indian Democracy. India can be saved only by a sensible military rule and abolishment of cast based reservation. Aren't we ashamed to be secular and giving caste based reservation? Shouldn't we go to Income based reservation if needed. That too based some more better scales to find the income. I think that not many people know that the bill to increase the wages of MP's (overheard somewhere, not sure of sources) was passed in both houses of the parliament even without any discussion. (It'll the only bill that can achieve that feat).

And to everyone who is thinking "I cannot change the world singlehandedly by just thinking the right way".... One person changing , will have more contribution than a thousand people who doubt whether i can change something that is wrong" and one more thing to the same group.... "Many Drops make an Ocean, but only if drops decide to condense rather than being water vapour" . It's a bad way of putting it.. But i feel i have made myself clear...

Signing off.....

Daniel Paul(Thakkudu)

After Five Months and Six Weeks @ The Land of Nizamz.............

2010-02-06T12:27:00.001-08:00

While I got my own net connection after about 5 months and 6 weeks i have realised that i have never blogged at all for that much time. Not that i was a great blogger before. But usually while living on the internet i did blogging was an escape or just a timepass. Only thing was i was proud of my blogging was when i was invited into the Ragam '09 Blog by a sister who did actually read my post about Ragam. There was no limit to my happiness then. After all college as well as Ragam had always been my passion and i was happy about being a part of it. After passing out of college somehow after deciding i was better off without spending one more year at college, life had a lot of things happening.

Life was fun. Not just fun, had a lot of experience altogether. The first thing i did after passing out essentially was the trip to dennis's home. Only thing that made me sad during that trip is that i didn't have a piece of land in the beautiful Coorg. Little did i realise there will be never a trip like that ever again in my life. Then things were happening at so fast a pace. Soon after the trip got over i got a certificate that i had written my last exam two months before i passed out from college. Then the next thing on agenda was the trip to rajadhani, Delhi. I can only thank NTPC, my parents who were interested in me joining a Navaratna(or is it Mahanavaratna, who cares) PSU and my lady luck who makes me pass through the cut-off's of most objective type exams ,for getting a chance to see Delhi. May be it is not a big thing, but still for an Indian who had not travelled for more than 12hrs at a stretch before and never travelled north beyond Goa, it was a good experience. The first day enjoyed a day at NTPC Hostel, it was fun. Then after a disappointing day just like what usually happens when i appear for an interview after the test, i went to my seniors at NOIDA. And the next day i roamed through the Rajdhani and found it a beautiful place and worth seeing and enjoying. But i had to leave it too early. I didn't get enough time to enjoy the full beauty of it. Decided sometime else i will go at see it again and on the next morning i am on train back.

When i reached, i had ten days left before leaving to The Land of Nizamz. Now the problem for me was i was feeling too much Indian. Not that i have not been passionate about Mother India before, but now i was supposed to join a new American company which i had not much idea about in 10 days. In the meantime i applied for a Passport which i didn't apply because I had two date of births on record, like many people else and also because i didn't want my hostel address on the address column of my passport. The results of NTPC were promised on the day i was supposed to come on the day i was to join my company and i had no guarantee to let off the company. So i decide i will go to Hyderabad anyway and wait for results if i came out successful by any chance. I will pay a visit to Hyderabad as well before the not so adventurous life at NTPC, else i will go on normal and join the company. But i was praying to God,inwhich i didn't much believe in as always, to give me NTPC, because i always knew what was happening there, whereas the American Company was like voyaging into an uncharted territory. Only thing nice i felt was the great interview i had attended by the Managing Director.

Thus on July 14^th i reach the beautiful land of Hyderabad, tired of the sickening train journey that started on 13^th noon to 14^th noon, i reach Hyderabad. Thanks to the punctuality of the PSU in publishing its results, i joined my company, FMC Technologies India Pvt Ltd. Then from july 15^th, 15 days of my training, began. It was fun, the collection of 22 grads handpicked was good. In the fifteen days, a good group of friends was formed. The group became more closely knit day by day and as days passed i was too confused again. A question formed in my mind, "What if I get NTPC?", three things stood against me continuing at FMC. One was My passion for India, another was my parents wish to join the whatever ratna NTPC and the distance from the Good Ol' God's own country. But my prayers did change, once again i didn't want to take a decision, i didn't want NTPC. Life at company was too much fun. May be the novelty to corporate world for all of us who formed the main part of company, May be the close friendship that formed from the first day they send us on a Hyderabad tour for a day rather than start working on the first day . The company started and i started learning a lot of things. When i mention that in the first three weeks through a set of powerpoint presentations and discussions, i had learned a lot more engineering stuff than i had learned at college, everybody will say of we too as if it is a good joke. But i'm telling this from the bottom of my heart. Except for the fact i was learning a lot of things, it had the feel of college.

This is the problem, i thought the what to post to begin my life back in the blogosphere, i did want it to make it this big , but i won't prevent myself from putting a big post up because i am feeling like when i post it let it be king size.

Thus starts my corporate life. Life was a lot different what i had expected and i was enjoying it. First two and a half months of the corporate life did end up waiting for the project that was assigned from the people who was supposed to make the project ready for us and i end up learning a lot of things here and there and i was more like worthy of being called and engineer. In between i was so happy, when the NTPC results came and i realised NTPC would take you through offline only if you either have high positioned people to recommend or huge graduation marks(neither of which I had) as always that happens from the side of a PSU.I had also realised after living a tourist destination like the beautiful God's own country, only quality that can make Hyderabad interesting was enjoying the museums which i didn't have. In that time through weekends and wasting quite a lot of money we had seen through almost everything that was worth seeing in Hyderabad and now had the idea that unlike what others felt By that time came up a long expected party, The convocation, most of my friends have had their first steps in the corporate world and we were gonna meet for the first time after that at the place where we all spend 4 important years of our lives and we were gonna be seeing APJ Abdul Kalam as well. It was fun like we all expected and lived a beautiful couple of days back at college.

Then as I get back, the much expected project is there and though i end up facing a huge project though not as great as expected still I had no skill sets to get bored of doing and acquiring a new skill set was adventure and i loved it especially when it is a software. So we started on a project and project moved on, i understood that it was getting bored as i learned more and work was getting repetitive. But envy at better projects that others had was quite natural as a human being, but still i was enjoying the company as well as my location that had me at the centre of south india having everywhere except kerala and home in south india at an easily reachable distance and i managed a trip to Bangalore which had already become the main establishment of my friends.

And another trip home during X-mas was the last happening in the year 2009 as the company party that was supposed to end the year had to be postponed due to a hartal due to the telengana issue, something that made me tell almost everyone who i talked to from outside Hyderabad that "There are two hyderabads in AP. One which was burning with Telgana issue and one which was peaceful also known as Hitech city where nobody cared about Telegana. " Considering another thing, the hartal we had during the death of YSR which made us so grateful about the fact that we can cook, the effect of telegana hartal was nothing. Nothing had happened except for me losing some bucks on booking a ticket for the movie "Paa" on the day telegana was on fire.

Now the new year was born without much special incidents, It was just another normal "ok" day at office, that afternoon i climbed on a bus to Pune since i didn't wanna miss my friends on the first weekend of the year and had a great time out there. The next weekend was eventful since we had the company party. It was really enjoyable and fun. The weekends of this year all were so marvellous till date. I will end this post by just giving the six weeks of fun. After the first two weekends i had a wonderful life at Pune. The next weekend, i ended up making my first investment. The next weekend after a long time was a meeting of colleagues. We ended up seeing the Picture that might have earned maximum percentage profit w.r.t its Budget, "Paranormal Activities". But the Horror movie ended up as a comedy spoof. We all agreed it was a nice concept and style of taking a horror movie. Making people feel it as real like "The Blair Witch Project". But our hang-out was too good. Since my flat-mates were at different parts of earth, in the four days including 60^th anniversary of Indian Republic, i ended up having fun with my own cooking experiments and a lot of classic movies.

The next weekend was always special, since it celebrated the black day for earth and the 23^rd anniversary of a disaster called my birthday. I had fun like anything else, I enjoyed a gr8 Sunday with lots of food and enjoyment. Hanged out with my college friends once again but this time in the land of nizamz. The places like CityCenter, Oottupura, KFC, HRC, GVK 1 was enjoyed like never before. The next(this) weekend ended up as a movie+hangout with colleagues again. This time we came to the movie "armored". It was a good movie to watch it was a different kind of movie altogether. With the starcast it was expected to be a great heist movie once again and ended up the whole of movie had everyone in like negative roles. Another noticeable thing in the movie was that there was not a female actor in the movie except for the one old lady who came to split the lead from his brother and had just one scene. It was altogether a different one. Like just another "A" rated Hollywood movie, it had nothing not even some hard violence that is there compared to many movies that if made in India escape with an "U/A" censorboard certificate and another hangout with colleagues ended up as a nice outing as well...

So this will be good enough i guess, enough for people to read about Hyderabad and comment. I welcome comments and suggestions about this blog and post. Not making you bored anymore since Word says i have written 2000 words.

Signing off......

Daniel (Thakkudu)

ഒത്തിരി കാലത്തിനു ശേഷം

2010-01-25T00:37:00.000-08:00

വളരെ നാളുകളായി ഞാന്‍ ബ്ലോഗ്‌ ചെയ്തിട്ട് എന്ന് വെളിവാക്കുന്ന timeline ആണല്ലോ ഈ ബ്ലോഗിന്റെ ആരേലും എത്തിനോക്കിയാല്‍ തന്നെ ഒരു നാണക്കേടാണ്.. പക്ഷെ അതിനും ഒരു കാരണം ഉണ്ട്... എന്ത് ചെയ്യാന്‍ എനിക്ക് കന്നെച്റേന്‍ ഒന്നുമില്ലായിരുന്നു WWW ആയിട്ട്.

ഇപ്പോള്‍ എന്തെങ്കിലും വലുതായിട്ട് എഴുതാന്‍ ഞാന്‍ ഉദ്ദേശിക്കുന്നില്ല എന്നാലും ഞാന്‍ വരും... അടുത്ത പോസ്റ്റ്‌ ഉടനെ ഉണ്ടാവും... ക്ഷമയോടെ കാത്തിരിക്കുമെങ്കില്‍.. അല്ല ക്ഷമയോടെ കുറച്ചു കാക്കണം എന്ന് ഞാന്‍ അപേക്ഷിക്കുന്നു അഥവാ ഇത് വായിക്കുന്ന ആരേലും ഉണ്ടെങ്കില്‍...

അത് വരേയ്ക്കും നമോവാകം.....

RAGAMs........

2009-03-10T23:19:00.000-07:00

When i remember Ragam's till date, i would tell Ragam '07 was the best.. but to be true, i haven't enjoyed much of Ragam '08, with one of my best friends lying in hospital seriously injured its nothing that can be enjoyed much. But the working for RAGAM '08 was a mechanical one, as i couldn't stop working because you cannot quit Ragam for any reason. Its how RAGAM is for NiTC. So i still believe i did most of the jobs i had to do.

Then when you think back to 07, it was really a beautiful RAGAM. It was really alive and we enjoyed the whole of it from the beginning part of the work to the last minute of RAGAM, especially SHAAN, It was an awesome experience. Working along with the seniors was fun, so was making juniors work and the RAGAM feeling was high in every heart. The great marketting acheivement was a pride not just for those who worked for it but for everyone who was involved with RAGAM.

Then there is our First Year RAGAM, The 06 "Stand Out, Blend In", thats when as first years we blended into the college celebrations and culture. RAGAM work was really the first tme we had close contact with our seniors and all for we as first years were locked up in the A-Hostel all the time. So our friendship was confined to our year. Pinne as RAGAM PAD work and all started we started meeting a lot of seniors and started to enjoy working for the college. Though i should not forget the tathva PAD work, and other small events, the actual Spirit was RAGAM, It was of much greater proportion and we really enjoyed it. Before and after RAGAM, the feeling for college was different. After RAGAM, i had become the part of the college. The happy feeling of selling a Rs.100 ticket of Parikrama even after spending more than rupees 500 per day in city was a great feel for us. Then we learned a lot of things about how to make something happen. Then we learned to be what we are now. So RAGAM is a great feeling in the heart ...

Thats why we want RAGAM 09 to be the best ever, because that is the proof of what we learned from this college, not the CGPA out of 10. We have been dreaming of this RAGAM since '06 and i am confident that we can make it happen.

So See ya at RAGAM '09............

When the final countdown begins................

2008-09-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

Yes the final countdown has already begun. The lasts of college life are coming up. Thats what i want to write about.

The last onam was the event that opened my eyes into this fact. Final year wasn't fun yet. It was a bit boring. Thanks to onam celebrations and Dileep for making me a part of onam celebrations, i realised my days at Nitc were being counted.

The events are being enjoyed to the maximum the only sadness is that this will be the last time you'll be able to celebrate it here. So Final year isn't that boring. Its to be enjoyed. But even when you enjoy to the maximum there is a small feeling that hurts you. There wont be one more of this. Ya it took me the final year onam to realise it.

Today i was so sad that i aint year out because if i had been i would have got 1 more year at college. but life in itself has been about changes. Changes from one environment to another is always a part of life.the inevitability of leaving the college is standing against me.

The fun part of college was enjoyed but may be i missed somethings at college now. But life is fun nowadays. There are a lot of mistakes i did in the last three years its time to make them all up and leave the college with some honour, dignity and pride. I think evrybody will agree with me...

"Subramaniyapuram"

2008-08-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

Writing about the movies i like and have seen will be a lot of work though there are notable ones like a walk to remember, paycheck etc. There are a lot of movies i like.. But now i decided that now onwards i'll post my comments about the movies i see.

I have finished watching Subramaniyapuram just now. Its a touching movie about the 1980's of Tamil Nadu i think. With understanding only about 80% of the dialogues, a part of the storyline have been my guess. Anyway i liked the whole setup of the movie. The movie basically has a classical romance hidden inside a lot of violence.

The movie is basically about a small local town, and the motives of the political people making use of the unemployed youth which is loyal to them, breeding them as a gang of criminals. Then they are sent to jail means they are helped by people who want to use them, as are already reputed killers. As the movie progresses the violence comes in and the romance is lost by midway.

The movie is a realistic one setup in a town which is ruled by local landlords who control the town and the heroes or the main characters are being brought to their use easily. Its a lovely movie with a bit of suspense and love, but having a lot of violent sequences.

So the beauty of beautiful classic romance in the beginning is spoilt by the bloodshed that follows. It also has very tragical climax with a good ending which gives a good feel to the viewers. Because at last it has been justice executed though cruel.

I know some of you will blame them for choosing that path. But you should really visualise what leads them to do it, what is the situation behind. They were wronged because they believed in somebody else who had cared for them in the past. He didn't keep the word making them criminals. It was the situations that led them to believe him. This shows a viewpoint of how a person helps them and then makes them do what they shouldn't do and makes it appear that apparently it was their choice.

The villain in the storyline could influence the heroes and lead them to a tragic end. It also has something to do with political rivalry in which the neutral and general public becomes a scapegoat by the hands of the party leaders for their benefit.

This can be viewed as an eye-opener for the youth who falls in false friendships and commitments that may lead you to the worst of paths to the future

As the time of the exams come again.....

2008-08-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

Exams are always a hectic tym when NitC... Life's all upside down people get up at odd tyms like 4 o'clock when then used to sleep. Pinne see notebooks for 80% of time instead of the 1st 5 mins of class they take to sleep off. and mugging up studies just to fill up the paper tomorrow and forget about it after exams. The time people forgets about everybody else and lives in circles around the toppers of the class.

Thats the time i feel most lonely just because it isn't my style you know..i shouldn't be the one to tell but i study some things bcoz i like to know .once i know an outline i never mug it up. May be i don't wanna study at all in detail. One thought you shouldn't have in NiTC.. i think why byheart and vomit in the paper next day. i study for knowledge which can be accessed again by reading the textbook once more.

Thats one reason why i think i shouldn't have taken engineering. i should have done a B.Sc in physics or maths and went into a research field. Only then i could have done something..Because engineering is an approximate analysis where maths my favorite subject which is hailed as the 'queen of science' TAKES A BOW " to the complexity involved in practical applications.Being a great lover of mathematics it is something i cant stand.

I hate the thing called calculus that neglects dx*dx.. however small its a value na. One thing i didnt know about engineering was that Calculus was the one and only base of engineering. So thats the reason i hate engineering the most. whether or not it is correct "Its How I think".. may be it is difficult for me to change.

I like precision and truth. athukondu thanne i dont study.. i hate it.. So in the wake of exams i do something else when others study.. then enjoy with them all tym els.. its fun na.. thus this blog was born last end semester... Now aftr 1 exam in s7 i uploaded abt 280 mostly google logos.. all of a sudden when the olympics was abt to close..fell in love with the doodle concept of google.. and became an admirer of the art of google logos... and uploaded a lot of photos and kept a lot more for later.

Currently lemme try a bit of studying a bit
signing off