Pondicherry, Food & Sharks

This weekend we were headed to PONDICHERRY. The whole program started after we realized this was the second last weekend we have in bangaluru (Bangalore) before our summer internship gets over. So we started inviting people, inquired about the car hire expenses & some rough reading up about the place. So finally after all the debates, people ditching in at the last moment, off we went on Friday The 13th (though I don’t believe in this thing) night 11 pm with seven people finally turning up.

It is approximately 320 km from Bangalore and expectedly 8 hours journey. So we bought all the food n water for the night journey, settled in our car & hit the road. Everybody was very excited & there were no signs of sleep for any one. The best thing about the trip was that all of us were from the same college and different divisions so we had lots of stories to tell & hear. All of us were cracking college jokes, taking trips of our college mates & Profs. While our bloody driver was sleeping half the time while driving on the highway & me pinching him every now & then to make sure he was awake, all of us had loads of fun during the night journey.

We reached Pondicherry around 7:30 in the morning all of us tried from the sleepless night where all of us were laughing our lungs out on college stories. We started our hunt for a hotel and reached straight away to the “rocky beach”. On the beach I saw a very beautiful sea-facing hotel by HIDESIGN where we came to know that there was a DMK meeting that day and every single room was booked. This, my dear friends, was the beginning of our “ordeal” to find a room. After that every single hotel in the whole of Pondicherry gave us the same answers, even the shadiest of the hotel had their rooms booked by the DMK workers (except for a couple of HOTEL DECENT where we found a few non ac rooms, but then you know, we had 2 girls with us).

We had been to every hotel n found no room, for the first time in my life I was regretting not booking the room in advance. Suddenly, like an angel Riddhima called her cousin’s cousin…. some distant relative (whatever, people whom you call only in such situations) who had a friend in Pondicherry who had a guesthouse. WHOA! He had 3 rooms we were in luck, just before we were about to decide to go out of Pondicherry to find rooms. As it turned out we were in for more than luck, it was actually a full 2-floor house with 3 bedrooms. Wow every body was waiting for the rooms and people rushed (biological reasons lol, it was 10 by the time we entered). All of us got freshened up & by the time we were ready to hit the Pondicherry city it was lunchtime.

Now comes the best part Food. We went to a place called La Terrasse (The terrace) for lunch. It was French restaurant with a variety of French Cuisine. We tried lots of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes and every one was better than the other. The different salads were pretty cool too. After a nice meal all of us were so tired that all of us just wanted to go and crash on our beds(of course hadn’t slept for quite some time now) but one voice came that we are here to see the place and not sleep. So all of us gathered our last bit of energy and headed towards the Aurobindo Aashram. First of all the place had fixed timings and we had to enter bare foot. We waited for the clock to strike 2 while we were standing in the heat bare foot. We finally entered the place to finally find the place to a be Shri Aurobindo’s Samadhi, and a meditation place. The place was mall and we covered it in 15 mins flat. Now no one had the guts to take us anywhere else but straight to our beds. We went back and crashed for a couple of hours.

We got up in the evening and it was time for beach. I had heard of a beach called Paradise Beach, which had water sports, overnight tents and what not. So all of us geared up for an exciting evening ahead, only to be disappointed. We reached there and it turned out to be to be a disappointing family place where people were boating in their paddleboats etc. that too tat place had timings till 6. We decided to leave that place and go to a different beach. So we headed towards the East Coast Road and found a place where people were enjoying sea bathing. Finally!!! Beach and some excitement in sight. So we got rid of our clothes & jumped into the sea even before the blink of the eye. It is amazing with the sea waves at times they hit you hard & throw you to the shore and at times when your timing of jump is right you ride the wave and it passes after only tickling you.

While we were having all this fun a man watching us comes up to me & tells me don’t go any further there are sharks close to the shore today. SHARKS!!!!! We almost ran out of the sea and stood there for some time in fear till it we saw them with our own eyes, only 30-40 meters away. They were jumping in & out of water and were big enough to drag any one of us. But then the kind of enthu we had even sharks didn’t have the stature to kill our craving for fun, we continued but cautiously.

After this all of us were tired and hungry again. So it was time for dinner. We went back bathed in clean water got ready and went to the restaurant we had heard a lot about. RENDEZVOUS. It is famous for its French cuisines and it is in the locality that is full of French culture. The moment we entered I had the feeling we are at the right place. It was a restaurant with all white furniture (tables & chairs) like all the walls in the locality (don’t know if that signifies any thing French). Place was full of French people lots of Indian beautiful babes ;) (Now you know my reason!!!). We had amazing dinner. I ordered a QUICHE (pronounced as Keeche) was very satisfied with what I ordered. Everybody ordered lots of different stuff an I lover every single thing I tired. After we ate so much so that only air could have gone inside our bellies, we left for the rocky beach for a walk on the esplanade. Walked there for some time enjoyed the beautiful breeze and headed back to our rooms.

For the next day Vikhyat had a plan of going to the beach at 5 in the morning because of the heat which sets in after 8 in the morning. I was not very cool with the idea because I was tired and wanted to sleep properly. He set an alarm for 4:30, which I switched off after he slept thinking now no one would disturb my sleep. But guess that was not to happen and the driver called at 5 in the morning and woke us up. We got a little late but it didn’t get cancelled. We again set out for a blue water beach, as Naseer promised, on the East Coast Road. We drove fro about 10-15 km and still no sign of a blue water beach, but we stumbled upon a private beach, guarded by a wall. Naseer talked to the guard in the local language & guard there allowed us to spend some time on the private beach. WOW!! Again in luck. The whole beach was free of human activity and had the best times on the sea. Found crab in its shell while we were in the sea. Had loads and loads of fun riding the waves. So as it turned out that it was again a blessing in disguise that my scheme of sabotaging the plan didn’t work. Sorry Guys J

After this we went back and head for Bangalore. We were told DMK had a rally so the Pondicherry-Bangalore route would be jammed, so we decided to go via Chennai and stop at MahabaliPuram. We again had brilliant breakfast at one of the bakeries called Daily Breads. Seemed like a famous place. We had heavy breakfast ‘cos we knew now there wouldd be no time for lunch again and we would eat sometime around evening.

From there Neena just wanted to go back but we thought now that we are in Pondicherry we should not miss the visit to Aurovile Aashram. So we started for aurovile and good thing it is on the way to Chennai on the ECR. It is in the middle of a jungle a very serene place an excellent place if you go there and meditate and spend time with your self, but then it was us. We spent some time there & then took our way back.

On the ECR we saw a lagoon (extention of the sea), we pulled over and went down to take a few clicks in the area. I suddenly saw a fisherman catching crabs sitting on his boat. His boat was just 3 logs of wood joined together. Seeing that I just wanted to go into the water on that boat. We called Naseer he talked with guy in local language and he agreed to give us ride. BOY!! It was the best boat ride ever. It was as if we were floating on the water. I played my pranks as usual though, and started shaking the boat when we were right in the middle of sea. I was prepared if boat upturns. Yeah I know swimming and can save one person and Riddhima knew swimming only Vikhyat needed to be taken care of hehe. But that’s ok, we reached the shore dry only.

From that stop we reached MahabaliPuram, it a place where lots of stone carvings and other architecture of CHOLA kingdom era is there. Huge boulders carved into temples. We clicked loads of pictures there. Enjoyed the whole coastline view from the top of a boulder where a temple was. After all this it was time we put an end to the whole adventure and excitement and head to our place.

But as they say, “It ain’t over till its over”, we were in for another adventure. When we should have been sleeping in our cab and the driver driving, the scene was quite opposite to this. Our driver was getting drowsy and was sleeping while driving intermittently. As a result all of us were wide awake and having our arguments on world being Male Dominated or not. Every body was just looking at the driver and even then he managed to nap while driving, God it was scary. Then at one point when I couldn’t take any more I asked him to pull over have some water, and I asked him to sit aside and I will drive. But he was confident that he would be able to drive. We had a tea break after that and reached home safely.

Year 1 @ NM !!!

Hey my blog wassup !!! The annual guest is back……

First of all this is unbelievable..every year I get back to my blog at nearly the same time… 3rd week of may….

WOW 3 years since I wrote that first blog of mine… time seems to fly… I was 22 thn n now at 25…. So many things have changed in my life… had so many experiences…

They seem so true today when I write these lines “life’s a bitter sweet symphony”

As usual again I promise to my self to be more regular to this place n write more of my experiences on “as they happen” basis rather than “what I recall at the end of year” basis.

Ok so lets start from where I left last time. I was leaving for MUMBAI (The City Of Dreams)

I still remember the first day when I reached Mumbai and took a cab to my hostel. That morning it rained and the cool breeze felt amazing and the feeling was doubled by the thought of an independent life from now on. I was away from home for the first time in my life.

Our 15-day induction started on a very interesting note. Till date friends tease me for an introduction I gave of a girl (who went on to become a “very good friend” in college). Induction days were fun exploring new places, making new friends and some interesting lectures were some things we did.

First trimester marked the formation of the group. Our group was formed on the basis of people who hung out together. 5 of us were always together so group formation was no surprise. Retesh, aditya, shilpa, romil & me were the group members. Till date I don’t know if that was a coincidence or a case of “birds of feather” that all of us were from Delhi and our group is now known as the “Delhi Gang”. But we have our own way of addressing our gang we call it the “Hooo Gang”. We have a “hoo point” close to our hostel where we used to stand for hours and had our college gossip. Our group always had maximum fun & we worked too but in the first trimester our carelessness showed in our work. But at same time we really never had dreams to be academic super studs.

In second trimester the whole class experienced reshuffling of groups (of course people came to know about each other and wanted to be with the best). Our group remained the same, large reason for that was that we were so closely knitted group that we did not want any one to intrude our group’s fun and work combo (also may be image of our group was such that no one wanted to join our group). Second trim we got very casual, as we had seen that even with some effort close to exams can see you through decently. The result in second trim clearly showed tat ;). On a personal & emotional front this trim was very draining.

Third trimester was about getting over & moving on and starting to enjoy my MBA. I really started loving my projects. Had come out of a shackled mindset and had set my mind free. Would say third trimester was the best in terms of learning and clarity of what I wanted to do.
Now I am in Bangalore doing my summers with GE but not very satisfied with the kind of work I am doing. But I am now really looking forward to next year of my MBA and lets see what’s in store for me.

I would say last one year has been a mix of both some very good things and some very bad things happening but yeah this year by far has been the best year of my life. I am sure certain things which happened this year will stay with me for ever.

Let me end it on a note from one of my favorite movie Forrest Gump – “Life is a box of chocolates, you never know what’s coming next !!”

The annual Blogger

I have been kind of an annual blogger, I mean I just write a blog once a year and just forget after that, that I do own a blog. May be I have got the whole Idea of blogging wrong? May be I felt, apart from people who share their professional knowledge on their blogs, people who blog are the one’s who do not have many people to share their experiences. If that’s true I think I had enough reasons not to blog about my daily professional or personal experiences. Wow I am really good at finding excuses!!!

Recent developments and of course the people around in my life are clearly forcing me to start off again and give blogging another shot. Write about daily events, personal life, and myself. So here I go again, the 2^nd innings.

Ok so first of all this year I made it to a B-school and the journey to the great MBA dream begins 11^th June. The college is called Narsee Munjee and is located in the Vile Parle area in Mumbai. After working for more than two years as a software engineer going back to college, sounds a really exciting proposition to me. After all the effort I have put in to get through to a decent B-school, the feeling is really satisfactory.

After I missed a seat (by just a Kissing Distance) in a couple of colleges in the first attempt I was very heartbroken. Simply felt like a looser. I thought I’ll go ahead with life doing what I am and I will make my way up without the degree. But my mother has been a great inspiration in my life, always encouraging me, guiding me, making me understand what I can do and showing me the road ahead. That’s when I decided to give it another shot, and got the lucky the second time (how lucky the time will tell but still I cracked some decent entrance exam).

Last two years have also been really good in other facets of my life. I have been on just the right track in my career and have moved at a real good pace in the organization I have been working with – Magic Software. Yeah I recently got promoted to an Analyst. I have been given enough opportunities to perform and luckily I took advantage of each one to the fullest J.

Getting back to my shifting to Mumbai, I am very curious to know how I would do staying alone in a new city like Mumbai. After spending 24 years of my life in Delhi with my parents I am so much used of living a pampered life that the thought of living alone and taking care of my own self is kind of intimidating. I am really gonna miss my Delhi.

Enough for today have to plan my preparations ;)

Adios

6:company 1:me

A student’s first day in his engineering college, course 101 in Mathematics. He is just overwhelmed that after all the relentless preparations and untiring days (I should say nights) of cramming and learning had finally paid and his dream to be in this class is now a reality.

Six years have passed and now he is working as a software engineer in one of the reputed companies. Life has changed dramatically for him. Writing lines and lines of code, sitting with computer for more than 3/4^th of the 24 hours, given to him by GOD in a day, is a daily routine. He has a fixed time to set out for office in the morning at 9 am but doesn’t really knows what time will he back. He is so lost in chasing deadlines and proving a point(dunno what that point is ) that even his parents complaint about having no conversations with him for a whole week at times. He just bought a brand new car but only to park it in the office parking for the whole day. He buys new clothes but that too to show it off to the person sitting next to him in his cubical.

Ooh hope I didn’t bore you by telling too many details about somebody else’s life’s misery, or is that you are going through a vicarious feeling right now thinking, hey! that person is me. Well if you are thinking that you are not totally wrong because I can vouch for 99% if not 100 % of the people in IT fraternity that this lifestyle is very true. People are so much engaged in work that the radii of social circles of people are shrinking. You don’t have time for family, friends, girl/boy- friends.

Is this the kind of life you want, especially after putting in so much effort in getting into a good engineering college and then even more hard work to pass through that college? Is this what people aim for, that once in 7 days they’ll get time to rest, catch up with family and friends and do everything else in life. Does this not mean that out of every 7 days of my life I live 6 days for my company and 1 day for my self? Which means 52 days in a year and at times even less.

Well this one of those days when you wait and think where your life is heading and today also I couldn’t come up with a satisfactory answer. But I guess I’ll have to end here ‘cos my deadline for the day doesn’t allow me to write a word more.

So long.

I start blogging

Well, finally even I am bitten by this bug of blogging. As I step into this new powerful world of writing (blogs) n expressing I am srrounded with this aprehension- do I belong here?? I mean all this about writing and expressing your thoughts to other people on a public platform..... wasnt this the job of writers n journalists????? Actually a person like me who has been a back bencher in any language class be it Hindi, English or Sanskrit starting a blog simply shows wht technology can do to you.

I have always been the worst writer in my English class, I clearly remember my articles used to be more in red color than in blue, red being my English teacher's pen correcting it all over. But here I am today taking courage to start a blog and somewhere in the back of my mind I have promised myself that I will very frequently write blog articles. I just realised the power of blogging. I can write whatever I feel like, yeah whatever!!!! Even if it is wrong. well for you it may be not for me'cos thats why I am writing.

Will have to end here.. cos the day's ending n I have to go back home, n think about tommorow's blog article.

For my English teacher....
Maa'm if you ever read this... trust me this is me... n you are still welcome to correct me any time you feel.