02 Days from now, it will be 4 years that we left that almamater of ours.Lot of water has flown since then. Lot of us have moved from strength to strength to forge new identities for ourselves. we have been meeting new people. In the process, would have made friends and follies alike. However, nothing comes close to the feeling of catching up on guys you grew up with. This is precisely how i feel. so much so that 'Elated'/'excited' seems brilliant understatements. i checked in slightly early and not knowing what to do, was roaming around the airport doing what has been my favorite time pass of years- Babe watching. When suddenly i thought of passing the valuable time in terms of worthy investment of Facebook. But alas, the Facebook is barred here. Aren't our airports turning anti social too? I could have kept pondering over this question or moved ahead with babe watching. however,in this moment of immense emotional turmoil and indecisiveness, i realized there used to be something called LOC once. I searched in Google not sure of the name that reverberated in our hearts a few years ago. And as pleasant as it gets, i saw this man, who i always thought has the ability and will to carry the world with us. World call him Kumar Saurav, i call him anything as it pleases me. And then i saw the man who has the ability to put to shame even the shine of diamonds- sachin kashyap, the star among superstars. Allokojwal, who i would always rever as a man of such integrity and honor, that he will put to shame the greatest. Furthermore, and i realized most of us have forgotten this beautiful venture. But not the feelings that formed this union.Am i not looking forward to catching up with you all.. The answer to this can only be YES ABHI

Vellore Trip dec2012

It's an unmatched feeling to be able to attend the most important day of your friend. And if you have the venue as beautiful as Vellore the effort seems to be completely worth it. Add to it some wonderful accommodation arrangements and some friends to spend time with, you have a memorable trip at hand. It won't be surprising to people who know me that it takes a lot to get me out of my comfort zone, but the same people also know that once am out, it takes a lot to stop me as well. 

Was having second thoughts about attending this marriage function but how on earth could have I missed this. The beautiful bride and an impeccably dressed groom gave a warm welcome as I managed to reach moments before the engagement. The journey was long but not tiring in any sense. Rain in Bangalore cooled down the unexpected warm weather and the wet vellore was ready to receive me with open arms. 

Met some new people, new talents I should say. I will certainly make it a point to keep meeting new people from varied backgrounds and understand the nature of their work. 

And then the Golden Temple was planned....

I can now comfortably pen down for the first time that I am not the most religious people you will meet, nor do I believe in the supernatural power which most believes governs us. But the Golden temple and more than just the temple made of gold, the management of the whole place didn't fail to amaze me.

I don't want to be critical and all but the 'holy' feeling inside the temple was artificial for me. I know the feeling has to come from within but when you go to a temple you expect some divine or serene environment to support your spiritual feelings. The whole place was beautiful, exceptionally clean as well, but, it was artificial to me. More than a temple it can actually win the award of the most profitable and best manageable business on any management criteria. I know this is India. I know a lot of what I am writing is inspired from the movie- OMG, but a part of it comes from the god's own book- Bhagwad Geetha.

Coming back to vellore, it's a city situated in middle of a lot of mountains. Wherever you go in the city the pleasant views of the hills will soothe  the slightly humid condition. The city is like a typical south Indian city, or shall I say any other Indian city. Roads are patched up with a lot of coal tar which tends to make the ride bumpy but then who cares for all that if the people of the city know how to make good tea. This is my second trip to Tamilnadu for two weddings and one impressive thing that has struck me is how passionately people make tea here. I am humbled every time I taste such good tea, I thought my lazy way of boiling the tea powder for making strong tea was the best recipe. 

The wedding was dot on time, as planned, and full of energy, technology and comfort. I am not used to attending Indian weddings which start exactly as mentioned in the card. The dj night witnessed a splendid dance performance by my friend Akshatha. Hearing all about the practices had increased my expectations and when I saw it finally live, it went beyond that. The couple dance saw the most important couple of the week shake their leg on stage as well. The look in their eyes said it all. They are made for each other.

I have no detailed idea about the Sindhi traditions but among other things they should be famous for their spicy food (though most of the catering staff was from Bihar). How do I know that? Well I was eavesdropping for some part of the time when I was standing the queue for those hot and crisp delicious jalebies. Some beautiful ladies with me in the evening and time just passed in clicking pics. Some of them actually surprised me as I have long doubted my abilities to impress the camera. 

Talking about traditions I have to mention that I have never witnessed a hindu wedding where the bride and the groom; the pundit and the family are seated comfortably on chairs and sofas while the table wore the burden of the Havan.  But it was comfortable as one of my new friend claimed.

Reached the kathpadi junction much before time but the surprising part is the fare. I had a reasonably comfortable bus drive from Bangalore to vellore for 160/- but coming from officers line to kathpadi junction in the same city costs 150/-. The first thing which will strike you when you enter this junction is the lack of facilities. I mean you are in India but I had better expectations from a historic south Indian city. They are very well managed in general but you know something is wrong when the very screen which is supposed to guide you to different platforms is not working. Now if you are from up north and are challenged when it comes to a third language, you are in trouble. Thank god they have good English speaking people at the help desks. Hoping the train ride to be smooth for most of its path. I have gone through the trip with ease. 

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author him/her self and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!

New year and old friends- deadly combo welcome 2013

New year & Old friends - (deadly combination)

After a long time on January 2nd we got together. It was a night with Basu, PD, Meenakshi, Arun and Bed and it was like old times. Personally I wasn't in touch with a lot of them but that's the beauty of friendship. A small talk about the well being of everyone and things were back on track.

Talking about dadu's tea and nana's food, love-bites, cricket gup-shup and marriages. Some of the concerns of talking on conference calls is to negate the background noise. 

It started to sizzle when Bed joined with the only downside that Mnx slept in between. PD and I tried to settle everything for them. Often we were short of topics but we persisted and came up with new ones. NERIST was always a hot topic and we talked about the classes, how simply difficult were the practical classes and how things have changed now. How we skipped the quiz, how getting all reds in Physics lab notebooks and it came to an interesting point where we had to use a life-line of calling Bhola to get the answer to an all important question. We forgot the venue of the famous quiz in which none of the EC guys attempted even a single question. Finally PD realized that he was outnumbered and that the venue was the seminar hall. The unity of the EC-2k3 is something which is still talked about.  MA-51, Sharan Sir's classes to the recent cars by the batch of 2k3. 

The call started at around 9pm lasted till around 1:45am with people coming in and logging off for different* reasons. Basu had to try the all time favorite dish -'dry fish' while Mnx just dozed off. Appreciate the extremes as Bed had come out in the open for better network and Bhola was very cozily conversing from the warmth of his bed, while almost everyone was fighting with the cold weather I had my fan on.

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author him/her self and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!