INTEL is hiring freshers for it's bangalore center.....
click here to see the job posting
6/28/2004
WHY SETTLING DOWN IN GERMANY IS BETTER , CLICK HERE
came across that in MSNBC......
I have finally started the big night outs ......where i do some reading throughout the night intersperse with bits of sleep with the light on (much to my mother's anger ).I seem to enjoy nights more than mornings ...bcoz it's quiet .
well i havent recieved any intimation from polaris...after getting thru to their second round......Thats the problem if u have these consultants doing the work on behalf of the main company. Companies in bangalore and hyderabad seem to function much efficiently than the chennai ones (esp TMI network on behalf of polaris ). i wrote the test on 23rd may , got thru and attended their non formal interview .on the 27th of may and yet there is no news.........what are these guys upto ??
came across that in MSNBC......
I have finally started the big night outs ......where i do some reading throughout the night intersperse with bits of sleep with the light on (much to my mother's anger ).I seem to enjoy nights more than mornings ...bcoz it's quiet .
well i havent recieved any intimation from polaris...after getting thru to their second round......Thats the problem if u have these consultants doing the work on behalf of the main company. Companies in bangalore and hyderabad seem to function much efficiently than the chennai ones (esp TMI network on behalf of polaris ). i wrote the test on 23rd may , got thru and attended their non formal interview .on the 27th of may and yet there is no news.........what are these guys upto ??
6/25/2004
I happened to watch a flick after a long time ...saw YUVA the hindi version of "ayudha yezhuthu ". The movie was pretty good, I only wish I had a proper print to watch ......so that i could have understood the story and dialogues much better. That's one of the problems of watching movies in those rented VCD's.
I am getting really sick of chennai's weather even though i've been part of it for 14 long years.......I'd rather shift to an azure climate .......somewhere in hyderabad or bangalore ....where ESPN and STAR SPORTS comes without any hindrance !!!!!! and where an employer hires me paying me a fat 20+ salary ..
IF WISHES WERE HORSES THEN BEGGARS .......
I am getting really sick of chennai's weather even though i've been part of it for 14 long years.......I'd rather shift to an azure climate .......somewhere in hyderabad or bangalore ....where ESPN and STAR SPORTS comes without any hindrance !!!!!! and where an employer hires me paying me a fat 20+ salary ..
IF WISHES WERE HORSES THEN BEGGARS .......
6/24/2004
TRIP TO HYDERABAD
I somehow feel a little nostalgic about college , more so about the friends circle I have. I felt this more as we were returning in the shatabdi express to chennnai from vijayawada ...enroute from hyderabad... Kishore and kartik(Tavul :BBC :AIR: FM ) and I were igniting college memories for about 2 and a half hours in the evening where we didnt realise how fast time has gone. It was great fun at hyderabad even though we didnt get thru the prelims at ORACLE there, especially in the hotel room and in the train........where we recollected some comical momemts of college life...some how as a matter of strange coincedence Kishore , anand and myself have completed 4 trips together now ..and just hope many more are in the pipeline.....It is a great feeling to go out with these guys and still maintain that camaradrie of college life. It seems so similar to the scene in DIL CHAHTA HAIN where the 3 friends meet and amir khan says "HUM DOST THAEY,HAIN OR RAHENGE " and i just hope that we still continue to keep meeting each other and go holidaying or spend time together.....and this applies not only to we 3 , but the whole gang that we have .
I know there exists the possibility of life not being so kind to have the whole of our group in the same place ........but i am so thankful that I maintain a blog and it helps one to keep contact with me any time , any place. .........
nuthing much to write about the city hyderabad as the golti girls were a big letdown unlike bangalore .
A couple of incidents that came to mind during the journey in the passenger train from Hyderabad to vijaya wada
1 a beggar came to me and was asking money ....I wanted him to go away so said in hindi"kuch nahi hain, jao jao" , he probably didnt understand hindi and so with the minimal telugu knowledge i had learnt in college .....i told the guy "JARAGU JARAGU " which meant the same . But the guy stared at me and had a wry smile and started laughing and moved away so as to suggest ,"i dont need money, the entertainment u provided by speaking broken telugu is enough to keep my stomach full "... :-(
2 secondly I happened to come across a newspaper ad in the matrimonial section which read
" WANTED FAIR GIRL, CASTE NO BAR ,LESS THAN 25 YEARS WHO LOVES COCONUT WATER AND POP CORN ,FOR 30 YEAR OLD MAN EMPLOYED IN PRIVATE COMPANY "
Wow ! YEHI HAIN RIGHT CHOICE BABY !!!!
UPDATE ON MY STOMACH : the holes drilled in my stomach have healed and i can resume normal operations in about 2 weeks.....but need to put on some weight.....
I somehow feel a little nostalgic about college , more so about the friends circle I have. I felt this more as we were returning in the shatabdi express to chennnai from vijayawada ...enroute from hyderabad... Kishore and kartik(Tavul :BBC :AIR: FM ) and I were igniting college memories for about 2 and a half hours in the evening where we didnt realise how fast time has gone. It was great fun at hyderabad even though we didnt get thru the prelims at ORACLE there, especially in the hotel room and in the train........where we recollected some comical momemts of college life...some how as a matter of strange coincedence Kishore , anand and myself have completed 4 trips together now ..and just hope many more are in the pipeline.....It is a great feeling to go out with these guys and still maintain that camaradrie of college life. It seems so similar to the scene in DIL CHAHTA HAIN where the 3 friends meet and amir khan says "HUM DOST THAEY,HAIN OR RAHENGE " and i just hope that we still continue to keep meeting each other and go holidaying or spend time together.....and this applies not only to we 3 , but the whole gang that we have .
I know there exists the possibility of life not being so kind to have the whole of our group in the same place ........but i am so thankful that I maintain a blog and it helps one to keep contact with me any time , any place. .........
nuthing much to write about the city hyderabad as the golti girls were a big letdown unlike bangalore .
A couple of incidents that came to mind during the journey in the passenger train from Hyderabad to vijaya wada
1 a beggar came to me and was asking money ....I wanted him to go away so said in hindi"kuch nahi hain, jao jao" , he probably didnt understand hindi and so with the minimal telugu knowledge i had learnt in college .....i told the guy "JARAGU JARAGU " which meant the same . But the guy stared at me and had a wry smile and started laughing and moved away so as to suggest ,"i dont need money, the entertainment u provided by speaking broken telugu is enough to keep my stomach full "... :-(
2 secondly I happened to come across a newspaper ad in the matrimonial section which read
" WANTED FAIR GIRL, CASTE NO BAR ,LESS THAN 25 YEARS WHO LOVES COCONUT WATER AND POP CORN ,FOR 30 YEAR OLD MAN EMPLOYED IN PRIVATE COMPANY "
Wow ! YEHI HAIN RIGHT CHOICE BABY !!!!
UPDATE ON MY STOMACH : the holes drilled in my stomach have healed and i can resume normal operations in about 2 weeks.....but need to put on some weight.....
6/21/2004
CAS : MURDABAD ! !
Being at home now in the post operative period , I feel the need for some entertainment and being in Chennai is causing me huge dissapointment due to the Conditional Access Scheme(CAS) being implemented here. It pains to know that just a little beyond anna nagar in the north , velachery in the south all the channels are coming. Being the cricket buff that I am , I felt really bad on missing out on the Indian team's australian tour earlier this year. I missed it last time in 1999/2000 because I happened to shift my house and it was 12th standard exam time. The last time I saw a full tour was in 91/92 , that too only the highlights shown at latenight.
I enjoy cricket being played in australia simply because of the environment,commentators...the tradition behind the grounds, the early morning matches(4 am and 5 am starts IST ) and of course the balance being preserved between bowlers and batsman ..in the matches played as the question of one sided batsman friendly fflat pitches is not there.
History they say repeats itself and for sure it does....like the PRE DD days ...of 91/92/93 where STAR had not made inroads into the television market, but was just another entity. The same is repeatingtoday as the free to air channels are as bad as DD and the PAY channels like STAR are unavailable . Those days very few people had STAR tv connection and belive me , it then was a status symbol as very few had it and could afford it (750 for installation + 100 per month ). More than it being costly , parents had the wrong notion that it would spoil children's studies and they didnt have the time to watch "english" programmes. I remember envying my 60 something palghat neighbour Ganapathy uncle whenever a match was relayed on STAR and I had to go to school.
Ganapathy uncle knew my madness for cricket when i was in class 4,5,6 and invited me home to watch matches with him especially when matches played in new zealand were relayed at 3 am. It was a big event getting up then and knocking his bell at 3 in the morning ....THOSE WERE THE DAYS OF INNOCENCE .............
with lots of cricket coming up .in the next few months and ....the frustration of not being able to see and analyse the game is slowly building up. I am just praying providence to land me a job anywhere in the south except chennai .......preferable bangalore (considering the scope for IT) so that I dont have to bear the heat and can enjoy watching cricket........
Being at home now in the post operative period , I feel the need for some entertainment and being in Chennai is causing me huge dissapointment due to the Conditional Access Scheme(CAS) being implemented here. It pains to know that just a little beyond anna nagar in the north , velachery in the south all the channels are coming. Being the cricket buff that I am , I felt really bad on missing out on the Indian team's australian tour earlier this year. I missed it last time in 1999/2000 because I happened to shift my house and it was 12th standard exam time. The last time I saw a full tour was in 91/92 , that too only the highlights shown at latenight.
I enjoy cricket being played in australia simply because of the environment,commentators...the tradition behind the grounds, the early morning matches(4 am and 5 am starts IST ) and of course the balance being preserved between bowlers and batsman ..in the matches played as the question of one sided batsman friendly fflat pitches is not there.
History they say repeats itself and for sure it does....like the PRE DD days ...of 91/92/93 where STAR had not made inroads into the television market, but was just another entity. The same is repeatingtoday as the free to air channels are as bad as DD and the PAY channels like STAR are unavailable . Those days very few people had STAR tv connection and belive me , it then was a status symbol as very few had it and could afford it (750 for installation + 100 per month ). More than it being costly , parents had the wrong notion that it would spoil children's studies and they didnt have the time to watch "english" programmes. I remember envying my 60 something palghat neighbour Ganapathy uncle whenever a match was relayed on STAR and I had to go to school.
Ganapathy uncle knew my madness for cricket when i was in class 4,5,6 and invited me home to watch matches with him especially when matches played in new zealand were relayed at 3 am. It was a big event getting up then and knocking his bell at 3 in the morning ....THOSE WERE THE DAYS OF INNOCENCE .............
with lots of cricket coming up .in the next few months and ....the frustration of not being able to see and analyse the game is slowly building up. I am just praying providence to land me a job anywhere in the south except chennai .......preferable bangalore (considering the scope for IT) so that I dont have to bear the heat and can enjoy watching cricket........
6/17/2004
JAB BHAGWAN DETA HAIN TO CHAPPAR PHADKE DETA HAIN
just heard that rediff is also joining the mailspace bandwagon by offering a 1 GB mailbox.......boy !!! I have enough space on cyber space that I caould build a house there , if only i could DEMAT the GB's and MB's into bricks.........instead of 1000 sq feet bungalow , we in time to come will have a 1000 mb , multiple folder space (bed room ) , 10 mb attachments (toilets) ..........
IRONY : The other day it cost me 275 rs to come from ambattur to madipakkam ........while it cost me 500 to go to banagalore and return from my place.....
with this operation of mine...i find it tough catching a bus or walking ....so I invariably take up a call taxi...where the rate meter matches the speedometer!!!!
on 19th I have got my interview at a company here at T nagar called Thinksoft....and also on the same day there is a walk in for ORACLE in hyderabad....? I've gotta decide between these 2 purely on the basis of cost
MADIPAKKAM -TNAGAR- CALL TAXI - TO AND FRO 300 *2 = 600 +LUNCH + DRINKS = 700 TOTALLY(FOR 1 DAY )
MADIPAKKAM - CENTRAL-HYDERABAD-ORACLE (HITECH CITY )-200 + 281+ AUTO (100) + FOOD(100) + STAY = 681 ONLY ............
So the verdict is clear ........go to hyderabad
just heard that rediff is also joining the mailspace bandwagon by offering a 1 GB mailbox.......boy !!! I have enough space on cyber space that I caould build a house there , if only i could DEMAT the GB's and MB's into bricks.........instead of 1000 sq feet bungalow , we in time to come will have a 1000 mb , multiple folder space (bed room ) , 10 mb attachments (toilets) ..........
IRONY : The other day it cost me 275 rs to come from ambattur to madipakkam ........while it cost me 500 to go to banagalore and return from my place.....
with this operation of mine...i find it tough catching a bus or walking ....so I invariably take up a call taxi...where the rate meter matches the speedometer!!!!
on 19th I have got my interview at a company here at T nagar called Thinksoft....and also on the same day there is a walk in for ORACLE in hyderabad....? I've gotta decide between these 2 purely on the basis of cost
MADIPAKKAM -TNAGAR- CALL TAXI - TO AND FRO 300 *2 = 600 +LUNCH + DRINKS = 700 TOTALLY(FOR 1 DAY )
MADIPAKKAM - CENTRAL-HYDERABAD-ORACLE (HITECH CITY )-200 + 281+ AUTO (100) + FOOD(100) + STAY = 681 ONLY ............
So the verdict is clear ........go to hyderabad
6/15/2004
I am clearly struggling to move around .......after my much fancied trip to bangalore 2 days back. I realize it was a grave mistake to go there in this health condition. I wore a DHOTI and went to ORACLE to write the exam and guess what heppened there? people were laughing their butts out at me ,staring at me ....hey whats this iyer-type doing here,he shud be attending a marriage or has he run from ...village in thanjavur"
centre of attention-- I was .....but this seem to be helping my friend prasanna as he felt that the girls in bangalore would invest a glance towards him ...even as they were starting at my attire.
thankfully we had ananths car .....in which i cud relax and get out and do the neccesary adjustments (kishore and anand would know better ) ...in seating positions .
it was some kind of a respite ....from sleeping 15 hrs in a day to get up to drink milk and have medicenes .....and of course eat food so that i can have medicenes..........
centre of attention-- I was .....but this seem to be helping my friend prasanna as he felt that the girls in bangalore would invest a glance towards him ...even as they were starting at my attire.
thankfully we had ananths car .....in which i cud relax and get out and do the neccesary adjustments (kishore and anand would know better ) ...in seating positions .
it was some kind of a respite ....from sleeping 15 hrs in a day to get up to drink milk and have medicenes .....and of course eat food so that i can have medicenes..........
6/14/2004
I am just back from bangalore.......after writing ORACLE's test for freshers (walk in ). The test was of moderate level, I didnt qualify for the 2nd stage .Then yesterday ...at Kyocera ....walk in we were kicked out....as the crowd there was too much for the organizers to digest...
I've learnt a few lessons...
1 GOLDEN RULE" never walk-in to an IT company without a proper employee referall.
2 have a GODFATHER (A.K.A HR ) in every comapny that u plan to write a test in ....
3 be there 2-3 hours before the scheduled registration procedures.
I've learnt a few lessons...
1 GOLDEN RULE" never walk-in to an IT company without a proper employee referall.
2 have a GODFATHER (A.K.A HR ) in every comapny that u plan to write a test in ....
3 be there 2-3 hours before the scheduled registration procedures.
6/09/2004
6/07/2004
6/06/2004
HERE IS A SMALL PART OF MY TOU DIARY OF THE TOUR I UNDERTOOK FROM MAY 6TH TO 23RD.
Day 1 may 6th 2004
8 am : I am off to guindy station to pick up my friend M.S Arvind (a.k.a chatter box) who is spending , what he calls his last day in Chennai as he plans to relocate to Mumbai . it is a little sad to part off with a guy who’s been a close buddy (however foolish his pranks were ) . so we ignite college memories of the last 4 years in my home , even as I pack my luggage for my tour , for which arvind too was to come , but got a job in Mumbai,so he couldn’t join us for the tour.
1 pm drop arvind and pick up sakthi who joins me from madipakkam enrote to central and proceed in the call taxi with amma also ,coming to see me off.
4 10 pm: 25 minutes for the train to flag off and no signs of Vishnu and kishore
4 11 pm :kishore spotted near dishnet hub at central, he had been late due to his bag tearing in the last minute and him having to borrow a friends bike and do some last minute shopping buying a new bag and fitting all the clothes inside.
4 35 the train flags off and we are on our way …..the tours just begin …GT express slowly chugs it’s way out of tamilnadu …..and we meet a guy called “sandip” from the eee dept of our outgoing batch and …….the journey is full of college gossips over the last 4 years ….heroes and villains of vel tech are discussed at length till Vijayawada station comes at 11 50 pm . sandip goes back to his compartment to get some sleep as he is to get down at Ramagundam which is slated to come at 4 am .
day 2
As usual I am the first to get up in the train ….waiting for some sumptuous meal at the stopping stations as the railway breakfast in the II nd sleeper wasn’t all that good .
The whole day passes uneventfully in the train as I keep shuttling across with my friends from our compartment to the pantry and of course filling water in the wayside stations
All I remember about eating is ….I try out a Black forest cake at nagpur station . the evening is a little eventful as a fat guy comes and requests we 6 to adjust so that his child can sit (at Bhopal ) ,we agree but slowly as time passes his two other kids and his cousin are sitting along with us , with we cramped for space . we learn how cunning and deceptive people in these parts of the country can be …
Another noteworthy event was we closing our eyes and pretending to sleep whenever we heard the sound of eunuchs entering our compartment .
Day 3
We reach new delhi at 5 15 in the morning and struggle with our luggages to shift 12 platforms away to catch our 6 o clock train to kalka station (chandigarh ) . I switch on my walkman and catch a first glimpse of delhi’s private radio stations RADIOMIRCHI, RADIOCITY AND RED FM ………but an hour later ….as the train moved away from delhi …….the FM signals stop coming.
As the train chugs it’s way into Punjab the an unruly mob asks(orders rather ) shakthi and kishore to get up and they find refuge in the train steps. We go thru lands with yellowish green flowers ,pretty similar to the flowers seen in DDLJ . I am the only one to have my breakfast and lunch as others don’t seem to be in a mood to eat.
Reach kalka at 12 and relegate ourselves to a general compartment where only 2 seats to sit are available for the 6 of us . we are happy traveling footboard in this slow toy train . meet a few immature Punjabi “singhs” who tease us , feeling that “sala madrasis” wont understand hindi. We are at the butt of their comments and they start start verbally assaulting us in an indirect manner . we don’t give a ear to what those rascals have to say , but such provoking reaches a boiling point , when sakthi and I apart from our seats ,occupy their seats at a station and start cracking santa –banta sardar ji jokes “ ARE U RELAXING ? NO I AM BANTA SINGH “ a few more jokes like these and they learn the art of being quiet.
We are scheduled to reach shimla by the toy train at 5 pm , but end up being late by 3 and half hours reaching the station at 8 30 pm , thereby cutting short our intended night shopping plan. Much to our dismay the hotel we’ve booked is 5kms from the station and it would cost 150 rs to reach there as it is a sealed area. We settle into our hotel room and eat our dinner very late at a roadside dhaba ,just when it’s about to close and finally I get to charge my mobile at shimla ………the night was pretty cold …….
DAY 4
I wake up at 6 and ask the guys to come for a morning walk,but after last nights tiresome journey no one is ready to wake up. I decide to explore shimla on my own …by going for a long morning walk and have chai at a nearby dhaba. I see the ridge and the mall and head back to the hotel room (HOTEL SATKAR ) an hour later . We load our camera’s with film and test out a few photos in the room .
As we wander through shimla at noon we are approached by a travel agent there and he convinces us into taking a Toyota qualis for rent paying 4500 for 6 persons as our hotel in manali is very far off from the city and we decide to do some local sight seeing today and the next day
The guy who sits in the back seat immediately vomits ….and arvind (anand’s brother ),sakthi and jack do so …..kishore and I refuse to sit back as we are the only ones who talk hindi in the group , so we have to guide the driver (nice excuse ) .The whole day is spent whistling through the valleys enroute shimla to kullu and we stop at a native kullu cloth emporium factory where we get shawls,jerkins,sweaters ….etc at half the actual price since we bought it directly from the factory.
We drive through some of the most scariest terrains at night and finally reach our hotel (SARTHAK ) which is situated on nagger road ,8 kms from manali . On going there we dicover that the documents needed to be produced the next day at the youth hostel trekking camp were left behind at shimla ……….booooo hoooooooooooooooooooooooo
DAY 5
We get up at 5 am and bzzzzzzzz is it freezing ? it’s damn cold in the morning with patches of snow just a few glances away . it must have been around 10 degrees there. We get into our jeep at 6 30 in the morning and set off to reach ROHTANG PASS ,which I hear from the locals , that the area received heavy snow in the past few days and we might witness sub zero temperatures ……..wow ………….
We stop at a shop and take some woolen equipment on rent paying 100 bucks each and are lured into going skating/skiing , so we pay 200 per person extra and with all the gear head off to conquer rohtang !!! In between we stop at a dhaba at 11000 feet above sea level to have our breakfast (mine was …..omlette and noodles ) . Arvind still continues his vomiting streak ……..vomitting on ice …..aha at least one gets free water to wipe one’s mouth here.
Soon we entered a zone where water…….was there above sea level and nothing but water …….or ice alone was there ……….we entered small tunnels of ice driving through them and finally the point arrived. Strong winds and the whitest white snow 360 degrees allover greeted us ……and we started off by throwing ice at each other ,then marched of to a quiet corner to earmark some space ……for us to do skiing without any prohibition.
Since we paid 300 bucks per person ……we decided we will ski for at least 2-3 hrs , but that proved our undoing as the weather was terribly chill (probably -1 ,0 or 1 degree ) and to beat it the sun was shining towards our direction which was blinding in a sense ….and that sapped all our energies ……..Kishore and aanand some how still had some energy in arguing with a local over buying 10 grams of a herb powder that is available only in leh and ladakh in it’s native form. They ultimately bargained and bought 30 grams of this substance called “SHILAJEET “ which ultimately was a native version of VIAGRA ,which we found out a week later , while trekking .
We were definitely the end of it all , but I stopped to have one final look at this place where we enjoyed to our hearts content, learnt skiing and skating ……and yes bargained ….for something we wouldn’t need at this age (SHILAJEET !!!!! ) .
THE NEXT PART DEALS WITH OUR TREKKING EXPERIENCE …….FROM THE 11TH OF MAY TO 19TH OF MAY …..(BEING TYPED ) .
Day 1 may 6th 2004
8 am : I am off to guindy station to pick up my friend M.S Arvind (a.k.a chatter box) who is spending , what he calls his last day in Chennai as he plans to relocate to Mumbai . it is a little sad to part off with a guy who’s been a close buddy (however foolish his pranks were ) . so we ignite college memories of the last 4 years in my home , even as I pack my luggage for my tour , for which arvind too was to come , but got a job in Mumbai,so he couldn’t join us for the tour.
1 pm drop arvind and pick up sakthi who joins me from madipakkam enrote to central and proceed in the call taxi with amma also ,coming to see me off.
4 10 pm: 25 minutes for the train to flag off and no signs of Vishnu and kishore
4 11 pm :kishore spotted near dishnet hub at central, he had been late due to his bag tearing in the last minute and him having to borrow a friends bike and do some last minute shopping buying a new bag and fitting all the clothes inside.
4 35 the train flags off and we are on our way …..the tours just begin …GT express slowly chugs it’s way out of tamilnadu …..and we meet a guy called “sandip” from the eee dept of our outgoing batch and …….the journey is full of college gossips over the last 4 years ….heroes and villains of vel tech are discussed at length till Vijayawada station comes at 11 50 pm . sandip goes back to his compartment to get some sleep as he is to get down at Ramagundam which is slated to come at 4 am .
day 2
As usual I am the first to get up in the train ….waiting for some sumptuous meal at the stopping stations as the railway breakfast in the II nd sleeper wasn’t all that good .
The whole day passes uneventfully in the train as I keep shuttling across with my friends from our compartment to the pantry and of course filling water in the wayside stations
All I remember about eating is ….I try out a Black forest cake at nagpur station . the evening is a little eventful as a fat guy comes and requests we 6 to adjust so that his child can sit (at Bhopal ) ,we agree but slowly as time passes his two other kids and his cousin are sitting along with us , with we cramped for space . we learn how cunning and deceptive people in these parts of the country can be …
Another noteworthy event was we closing our eyes and pretending to sleep whenever we heard the sound of eunuchs entering our compartment .
Day 3
We reach new delhi at 5 15 in the morning and struggle with our luggages to shift 12 platforms away to catch our 6 o clock train to kalka station (chandigarh ) . I switch on my walkman and catch a first glimpse of delhi’s private radio stations RADIOMIRCHI, RADIOCITY AND RED FM ………but an hour later ….as the train moved away from delhi …….the FM signals stop coming.
As the train chugs it’s way into Punjab the an unruly mob asks(orders rather ) shakthi and kishore to get up and they find refuge in the train steps. We go thru lands with yellowish green flowers ,pretty similar to the flowers seen in DDLJ . I am the only one to have my breakfast and lunch as others don’t seem to be in a mood to eat.
Reach kalka at 12 and relegate ourselves to a general compartment where only 2 seats to sit are available for the 6 of us . we are happy traveling footboard in this slow toy train . meet a few immature Punjabi “singhs” who tease us , feeling that “sala madrasis” wont understand hindi. We are at the butt of their comments and they start start verbally assaulting us in an indirect manner . we don’t give a ear to what those rascals have to say , but such provoking reaches a boiling point , when sakthi and I apart from our seats ,occupy their seats at a station and start cracking santa –banta sardar ji jokes “ ARE U RELAXING ? NO I AM BANTA SINGH “ a few more jokes like these and they learn the art of being quiet.
We are scheduled to reach shimla by the toy train at 5 pm , but end up being late by 3 and half hours reaching the station at 8 30 pm , thereby cutting short our intended night shopping plan. Much to our dismay the hotel we’ve booked is 5kms from the station and it would cost 150 rs to reach there as it is a sealed area. We settle into our hotel room and eat our dinner very late at a roadside dhaba ,just when it’s about to close and finally I get to charge my mobile at shimla ………the night was pretty cold …….
DAY 4
I wake up at 6 and ask the guys to come for a morning walk,but after last nights tiresome journey no one is ready to wake up. I decide to explore shimla on my own …by going for a long morning walk and have chai at a nearby dhaba. I see the ridge and the mall and head back to the hotel room (HOTEL SATKAR ) an hour later . We load our camera’s with film and test out a few photos in the room .
As we wander through shimla at noon we are approached by a travel agent there and he convinces us into taking a Toyota qualis for rent paying 4500 for 6 persons as our hotel in manali is very far off from the city and we decide to do some local sight seeing today and the next day
The guy who sits in the back seat immediately vomits ….and arvind (anand’s brother ),sakthi and jack do so …..kishore and I refuse to sit back as we are the only ones who talk hindi in the group , so we have to guide the driver (nice excuse ) .The whole day is spent whistling through the valleys enroute shimla to kullu and we stop at a native kullu cloth emporium factory where we get shawls,jerkins,sweaters ….etc at half the actual price since we bought it directly from the factory.
We drive through some of the most scariest terrains at night and finally reach our hotel (SARTHAK ) which is situated on nagger road ,8 kms from manali . On going there we dicover that the documents needed to be produced the next day at the youth hostel trekking camp were left behind at shimla ……….booooo hoooooooooooooooooooooooo
DAY 5
We get up at 5 am and bzzzzzzzz is it freezing ? it’s damn cold in the morning with patches of snow just a few glances away . it must have been around 10 degrees there. We get into our jeep at 6 30 in the morning and set off to reach ROHTANG PASS ,which I hear from the locals , that the area received heavy snow in the past few days and we might witness sub zero temperatures ……..wow ………….
We stop at a shop and take some woolen equipment on rent paying 100 bucks each and are lured into going skating/skiing , so we pay 200 per person extra and with all the gear head off to conquer rohtang !!! In between we stop at a dhaba at 11000 feet above sea level to have our breakfast (mine was …..omlette and noodles ) . Arvind still continues his vomiting streak ……..vomitting on ice …..aha at least one gets free water to wipe one’s mouth here.
Soon we entered a zone where water…….was there above sea level and nothing but water …….or ice alone was there ……….we entered small tunnels of ice driving through them and finally the point arrived. Strong winds and the whitest white snow 360 degrees allover greeted us ……and we started off by throwing ice at each other ,then marched of to a quiet corner to earmark some space ……for us to do skiing without any prohibition.
Since we paid 300 bucks per person ……we decided we will ski for at least 2-3 hrs , but that proved our undoing as the weather was terribly chill (probably -1 ,0 or 1 degree ) and to beat it the sun was shining towards our direction which was blinding in a sense ….and that sapped all our energies ……..Kishore and aanand some how still had some energy in arguing with a local over buying 10 grams of a herb powder that is available only in leh and ladakh in it’s native form. They ultimately bargained and bought 30 grams of this substance called “SHILAJEET “ which ultimately was a native version of VIAGRA ,which we found out a week later , while trekking .
We were definitely the end of it all , but I stopped to have one final look at this place where we enjoyed to our hearts content, learnt skiing and skating ……and yes bargained ….for something we wouldn’t need at this age (SHILAJEET !!!!! ) .
THE NEXT PART DEALS WITH OUR TREKKING EXPERIENCE …….FROM THE 11TH OF MAY TO 19TH OF MAY …..(BEING TYPED ) .
6/04/2004
A LIVING CORPSE
Thats what I am ....presently now...I have just returned from RIGID HOSPITAL in kilpauk after my 10 day stay there for an operation there.
well actually for the past one year or so ...my stomach has been complaining whenever it's been fed food of not so good nature and whenever there seems to be an over dose of oil in it.It complained in the form of severe stomach pain and frequent vomitting ...2-3 times a week.
so after consulting many gastroenterology doctors in chennai (who couldnt figure head or tail of my problem )i decided to give a last shot at LIFELINE CLINIC at shastri nagar ,adayar where they figured out I may have a small block in the small intestine ....and lo... i had 4 huge blocks in my small intestine that cudnt be easiily removed....so they had to cut open my stomach in 3 places and via laproscopy ....managed to construct a bypass and also take out the blocks....
at the end of it even after a week after the opeartion I still cant walk normally ..I Guess it shall take a month....for me to recover ...more on this in a later post.
Thats what I am ....presently now...I have just returned from RIGID HOSPITAL in kilpauk after my 10 day stay there for an operation there.
well actually for the past one year or so ...my stomach has been complaining whenever it's been fed food of not so good nature and whenever there seems to be an over dose of oil in it.It complained in the form of severe stomach pain and frequent vomitting ...2-3 times a week.
so after consulting many gastroenterology doctors in chennai (who couldnt figure head or tail of my problem )i decided to give a last shot at LIFELINE CLINIC at shastri nagar ,adayar where they figured out I may have a small block in the small intestine ....and lo... i had 4 huge blocks in my small intestine that cudnt be easiily removed....so they had to cut open my stomach in 3 places and via laproscopy ....managed to construct a bypass and also take out the blocks....
at the end of it even after a week after the opeartion I still cant walk normally ..I Guess it shall take a month....for me to recover ...more on this in a later post.
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