Journals

For a Successful Event Management

2012-01-27T19:39:00.000+05:30

This article is about how to mange an event successfully.

The first 3 most important things in an event management are

· Location

· Food

· Date & Timing of the event

The next 3 most important things in event management

· Decoration

· Gift items

· Travel arrangement

Write down the script of how you are going to do the event and stick to it.

Foresee all the wants your event can need you have crossed 50% of event management.

Write down a check list, double check and triple check it till the event finishes.

Anticipate problems! Have a clear cut timeline! Rehearse everything if possible!

Planning a budget for event is most tough task. Biggest headache is to do the whole event under a fixed budget. Keep a tracking sheet and update it as and when you spend.

Knowing where to get things at good quality but cheaper rate will make us successful in event management.

For all the things have multiple source and backup plan. I learned it a hard way , especially when a panelist could not make it to event.

Photo While travelling

2012-01-03T16:13:00.001+05:30

New series of photos taken while travelling
Ivvalavu calendar poduma?

How not to take resolution

2012-01-02T19:19:00.004+05:30

How not to take resolutiuon.

Learning from few previous year experience i have come up with certain points indicating how not to take resolution.

1. Being vague. For ex: In 2011 my resolution was to learn a new programming language. It is just a wish or mere statement not resolution

2. Open ended resolution. For ex: In 2011 my resolution was to lose weight. It also looks a mere statement

3. No plan. For ex: In 2011 my resolution was to learn swimming. But i did no planning for it.

4. No Commitment. For ex: In 2011 my resolution was to learn guitar. I completely forgot about it, till i saw it today what was my resolution last year. This shows my utter lack of commitment to the cause.

I think these are 4 major point for how not to take a resolution

Learn to say NO

2011-12-30T09:54:00.001+05:30

"Never play with the feelings of others because you may win the game, but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for a life time"
-- Shakespeare

If you cannot do something, tell NO . Don say yes and then sit without doing anything.

My first Tattoo & Its Meaning

2011-12-11T10:02:00.001+05:30

I inked.

Do not ask me why !

It is just one more of the things i wanted to do and i like it.

One of the thing i wanted to represent on myself is my desire to be free all my life.

I am accident prone. There are too many scar's in my body :P . and this is one is gonna be permanent.

Bird 1 - Headless direction less bird. Most of the life i have lived for the day and have never given much thought about too much into future.

Bird 2 - Beaten not broken. Life is a combination of sweet and sour. There are bitter time as well. I was beaten , beaten completely but i did not break.

Bird 3 - Phoenix - The Mythological fire bird. Represents my never say die attitude. I am reborn even if life tries ti grind me to dust.

Bird 4 - Eagle - Represents my desire to fly high and be free.

Incidentally 4 is my lucky number.

Together they form my first tattoo.

Kumara Parvatha/Pushpagiri Peak Trek

2011-11-14T22:29:00.001+05:30

After hearing so much about the difficulty level of Kumaraparvatha i was longing to ascend this mountain. Yes, You hear that correct, i was wondering how tough it could be? Raj Jacob-Ctc gives a hint that he will be organizing trip to Kumaraparvatha. I took the opportunity, though i was dehydrated prior to the trek , i still kept my date with Kumaraparvatha.Let me tell you about Kumaraparvatha.

Kumaraparvatha AKA Pushpagiri peak lays in Pushpagiri wildlife sanctury. The peak is at a height of about 1712m, and is about 13 km from the kukke temple and 7km from bedahalli. This mountain is on the border between Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu districts, so the lights of Somwarpet town in Kodagu can be seen from the peak.We had decided to ascend the peak from somwarpet side and descend the kukke subramania side.Click here for GPS trail for Kumaraparvatha trek

Adventure Starts:

Lalbagh train to Bangalore
Bus to Somwarpet from Bangalore majestic bus stand at 11pm.
Bus at 715am or 9am from Somwarpet to Bidalli (Heggade mane stop) .

Note: Excellent breakfast available in Somwarpet busstand. Forget about using the public toilet. Take a nearby room to get refreshed. Do everything before 715, there is only one bus to bidalli !After the usual distribution of food packets, we followed the tar road and headed towards the forest check post.After few mins we came across a bridge, which can be used for morning chores, if you do not intend to spend on lodge! from here on climb starts,we crossed a village, its steppe field and got the first glimpse of the western ghats range. further down the road we came across shanti malleshwar temple, take right before the temple and follow the way to forest check post.

Forest check post , pay Rs.250 give your name and address , answer couple of intelligent question they ask and leave before they understand your answer.From here its a ultra CLEAR trail to the peak. Surprisingly they have named most of the trees and when you feel you would like to know how much distance you are yet to cover, you get a board sign showing way and how much to be covered.There is a falls immediately crossing the stream that runs near forest check post. In honor of Mr.Arasu i will name it as INFANT falls !Ideally if you plan correctly , this trek ( Ascending via bidalli n descending to kukke) can be done in a day, but i am not sure how much you will live the journey. Ideally it can be done in two days. You can take lots of time to ascend, peak is about 7km from check post and you will easily reach before dark, even if you had 2hr nap!The sanctuary is one of the largest areas of tropical evergreen forests i have seen. Pushpagiri has dense evergreen and semi-evergreen vegetation, with shola forests and grasslands in areas of higher elevation.Rocky patches are found near the summit.

Beautiful forest gave herself to be photographed. Each people moved at their pace. we were walking mostly over the ridges of the mountain.There is a small water dripping from rocks about 2hour into the trek, which can be source of water. Caution: i went in month of november , and i found the stream on the peak had very very less water. If you plan to hike in summer, make sure you take 3l of water.Immediately after this to the right you get to see astounding view of the plains.Astounding because it had a 350m vertical drop.Around 1pm we came across a 60degree ascend from where we got an excellent view. Unpacked our lunch and finished it off in no time. Then after the healthy lunch , the terrain became steeper and it was wonderful to climb a 1oom , 60degee incline ! My shoe had a good purchase on the rock and it was fun to stand in middle of incline and look down :) Most of the rocky patches are found from this level. you will get totally 4 inclined rocky patches in the mountain to cover in this side

Even after slowing down our progress, we reached the peak by 330 ! Only to find the front runners needed more action and they want to go to some place called OG :P , i said no thanks,didn want to test my unhealthy and unfit body with people who want to push their limits.There was a discussion on what will people enjoy if they keep on running, that is what we are doing in city keeping on running, grinded down by work and why would they want to keep on running here too? why not do nothing for a change and have a relaxed conversation at top of the peak? My reply was " each and every person has his own outlook of things he want to do and how to enjoy a particular moment.Trained in eastern ghats of CTC treks, all of our treks we had never rested much,but pushed ourselves most of the time to keep on walking to explore more in shorter time.If thats what they would follow fine by me and it should be fine for all"

On a clear day like we had. one can see somwarpet town from the 3 view points that the mountain has to offer.For the best view you can descend down almost to the ridge on the mountain from where its a vertical drop of about 1200m. It might be little scary but awsomely good place to be all alone.There was chillness in the air , merriness at heart. It began to get cold as early as 5pm. I settled down to watch sunset. I learned later that the peak i saw when i was seeing sunset is called siddha parvatha , one of the member of the parvatha family.KUMARA/SHESHA/SIDDHA makes up 3 parvatha. I am not sure if it has been ever climbed, might try the next when i go there.Once sunset was done, i moved over to watch the moonrise. it started by being deep orange, pale yellow and then finally into white moon.Being in smaller team with strangers made me learn to do things! I built fire,brought woods for fire, and made an tent with the tarpaulin and rope we had. Mr.Sundar will you give me a scout badge? A common thing was all of us seem to be Goundamani fan !

I slept off as early as 830 and woke up to see the false dawn. I had carried a thermal blanket, which was really useful.Settled down to watch sunrise. Infant being born. Morning we had to go down the slope to get water for tea and started down to kukke. we had to negotiate one of the steep slope and got down to a trickling water at the bottom. filled up the bottle as we know there will be no water for rest of the descend till mantapam. we left the dense vegetation and were greeted with a dazzling view point, showing the western ghats in its splendour. Vegetation gave way to shola forest as we descended the sheshaparvatha. The view kept us in the photography mood, but our pace was also fast, faster than i thought. inspite of our numerous clicking session we reached Bhattar manne 1130. we took time off to explore near by area and to my delight hit upon guava trees and had it to my stomach fill.

Bhattar Manne - Buffet Lunch @ Rs 60. Eat what you get, nothing you can crib in middle of a shola grasslands , with sun beating you down mercilessly. we saw numerous elephant dungs , though dry, couple of days old, we didn come across any animals except foe few birds, especially black and orange flycatcher which gaptun has not yet seen :) 2km from bhattar manne we hit the trees again and we walked on and on. Kukke showed itself after a long time indeed. The fact i had "talkers" with interesting topic made the trek memorable.

This time i am not writing any #yaruko punches. By the time we reached to kukke , it was twilight. we could not get rooms to refresh, we had to go behind the hotel and use there backyard as bathroom. refreshed we hit New mysore cafe with vehemence. Karnataka has excellent masala dosa and coconut chutney but horrible sambar. people went to visit Mr.Subramanya while i waited around for them to bring ladoo !

1 down 6 to go
1. kumara parvata
2. kudure mukha
3. kurinjal
4. tadianda mol
5. kodachaadri
6. aagumbe
7. green route

Cheers till the next trek !

Kolli Hills - Flash Flood

2011-10-23T13:50:00.000+05:30

Kolli hills came to my attention very recently, as one of our trek mate wanted to conquer it.

Fortunately or unfortunately I am not able to fathom I had an official trip scheduled to tirchy that weekend. I was seeing if I could trek somewhere nearby. Kolli popped up. After an entertaining night, I was rudely awakened by hotel staff in the morning. I am supposed to move out. I must have started at 745 from Tirchy chatiram bus stand reached Thuraiyur by 900. When enquiring came to know my destination Puliancholai has 3 buses at 730, 900 and 1030. Fortunately or unfortunately it was late and I was able to take the 900 bus. It goes up to Thanganagar. Trek starts from here. It’s a 2km walk to village Puliancholai.

Puliancholai is a typical village that’s shown in Bharatiraja movie. Lush green fields, lots of trees, birds, domesticated animals, lake formation due to check dam, ladies and children bathing there with guys at a watchful distance. There are 2 shops where you can have breakfast and fill up water.

The Trek:

Immediately after the tea shop, I had to cross Aiyaru River. I crossed it at a place where it was narrowest. The river had a fast flow with knee deep water. There is a small temple and I walked along the clear trail along the shore in parallel with the river. I had to twice cross the tributaries of the river and in a place I had to cross the river itself. It had branched out due to big interference from Mini Island. Sun was beating me down. It was so humid and 45mins into the trek I was down in energy level and had been handsomely beaten by it. I did further proceed and had to cross mini stream from where it was only climbing up. (All the streams I crossed was bone dry) I decided to change cloths; I remember if a pig came near me it would have shied away. I settled down for a nap, when a nattu kattai girl came downhill. She gave me pineapple and guava she was carrying. I was like man, trekking alone has its own experience.

From there I climbed 2hrs uphill with a little break in-between. The jungle was virgin. The trail seems to be rarely used. Most of the places the trail is covered and you have to just judge that people have gone through it. Then there was a nice cloud that was covering up the hill above as I proceeded up. Now and then I had a feel of water being sprayed on me, if stand below some trees. Then all of sudden there was ear shattering thunder accompanied by lightning, before I could recover rain descended like a dam that opens up when it is full. Ten minutes into the rain, water began to flow in the path I had ascended. Clearly I saw I could not climb up, and I had to run before this whole path will have a water flow. So I ran, I ran downhill slipping, falling but I did not stop. I reached a place near the mini stream I crossed in morning; it had water till my knees, it was too muddy, I had to gingerly feel around to cross it. I realized I will be caught in middle of flash flood if I don’t hurry up.

The 2^nd mini stream had a huge flow of water. As I entered it came up to my hip level and was pushing me down. I had to walk in horizontal way and was carried down like 5feet before my leg got hold and was able to cross it. I ran, without looking back at what I have been through. I had a river to cross without which I might be stranded on this side. Alas from a vantage point I saw the flash flood crossing.

Flash flood =Pure terror. No video can ever replicate the terror the flash flood creates. It’s sound, speed, and the stealth, volume of water and color of it.

After & Before photo of Flash flood

The narrowest place where I had crossed the river now had water level of 9feet! A priest who was standing on the opposite side asked me to follow the river and get to a village called valayapati. He did not tell me how far it was from here. I followed his advice and had to detour 10-12km before coming to this valayapati. On the way I got to see a couple making out! Unlucky they were, the path I used was covered up with grass, means this is a rarely used path. There was a temple 3.5km from where I saw this couple, that’s where people come, after that it’s just jungle.The last of 5km i had to walk on top of embankment of the lake i happened to see in the morning , but from the opposite side.

I met 3 locals who entertained me with the local myths. One of the myth is that Kolli got its name from Kollippavai , which is a spirit of beautiful maiden who lures travelers and kills them. Ok I should say I did get little bit of hair rising all over the body. These people took me to their field and gave me tender coconut. They had also run away from the flash flood, while they were catching crab. I waited and had rice with crab curry in their home. Then from there I took a bus to Thummakudi , got down and took a bus to Thuraiyur.

What an experience it turned out to be.

Kolli hills I WILL BE BACK.

My Life in Kerala-Attukal Pongala Festival-Womens exclusive

2011-10-22T11:33:00.001+05:30

Attukal Pongala is a women’s only festival celebrated in the ancient Bhagavathy temple at Attukal in Thiruvananthapuram district. The ten-day-long temple festival is in the Malayalam month of Makaram-Kumbham (February-March). Ninth day is the most important day of the festival when the famous Attukal Pongala Mahotsavam takes place. The culmination of Pongala is with the sacrificial offering at night known as Kuruthitharpanam. According to the legend, after destroying Madurai in Tamil Nadu, Kannaki travelled to Kerala, where she rested for a while at Attukal, Women are said to have cooked pongala to appease Kannaki.

Countless women from all castes and creed from Kerala and the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu throng the temple premises to make ‘Pongala’ offerings to the Goddess, Festivities start with rendering songs about the deity. On the ninth day thousands of women gather in the temple to prepare Pongala, which is porridge of rice, sweet brown molasses, coconut gratings, nuts and raisins. The ritual of cooking starts very early in the morning and by noon, Pongala would be ready. Then the chief priest blesses the devotees by sprinkling holy water and showering flowers and then the pongala is taken back to the houses by the women.Pongala draws large number of devotees and tourists to this city. Colorful processions comprising Thalapoli, Kuthiyottom, caparisoned elephants etc and musical programs by famous artistes add charm to the festivities. Enroute, the procession will be greeted by Nirapara offered by the devotees and the procession returns to the temple the next morning marking the grand finale of the festival.

Attukal Bhagavathi is believed to be an incarnation of Kannaki and is referred to in the Tamil epic“Silappathikaram”. Also referred to as the Sabarimala for women, the Attukal pongala attracts not justHindu women but foreign women as well. The unprecedented rush for the pongala festival began a few years back after the “Guinness Book of World Records” listed it as the only event where over a million women get together to take part in thefestivities. “Since then, the numbers have been increasing every year. This year we were expecting 3million devotees, but more than 4 million women arrived here,” . secretary of the temple.

Women who arrive at least two days before pongala day manage to get their cooking place near the temple,while latecomers line up for miles to offer pongala. This year the queue stretched to almost 15 square kilometers in and around the temple. Women arrive with bricks, firewood and raw materials including rice,jaggery and coconut. They light their ovens from the fire provided by the chief priest of the temple after he lights the oven in the temple compound at 10.45 a.m.

I got into trivandrum without knowing this fact and had to wait for 5hrs to board bus to ernakulam. Wrote this along with a reporter who was interviewing people.

All ladies attend the pongala and get goddess blessing.

Velliangiri - Walk in midst of clouds

2011-10-11T23:11:00.000+05:30

About Velliangiri : Kongu Nadu is situated on the western part of modern Tamil Nadu. It comprises the modern Coimbatore, Erode and parts of Dindigul Districts. Mount Velliangiri is the western border of this land. This place can be reached from Coimbatoretown via Perur by road. Velliangiri is a part of Western Ghats containing natural herbs and all kinds of natural flora and fauna, can be enjoyed here. Here, on the top of the hill, under a natural cave, which is nearly 6000 feet above the sea level, Lord SHIVA is worshipped in the form of natural (Swayambu) Linga. This Linga is surrounded by adjoining four lingas. So it is named as "PANCHALINGAS". This cave can be reached after crossing seven hills. During the annual pilgrimage season, devotees in large number, throng this place day & night. The experience which one enjoys here can be compared with the "Amarnath Yatra" of the North. Here too, Lord SHIVA personifies in the form of Linga inside a natural cave. This place is also called a "Dhakshina Kailash", The pilgrimage season lasts for four months in a year (i.e) from February to May, corresponding to the Tamil month between Masi and Vaikasi. Velliangiri comprises of 7 hills.

Vipin , Ela , myself and arun who did the trek did not know any of this things. One of the lesser-known hill stations of Tamil Nadu, Velliangiri Hills is located at an altitude of 6000 ft, our agenda was to scale velliangiri.

Trek starts:

Take bus from Coimbatore to Poondi or Isha yoga centre- an hour and half travel at max. Bus timings from Coimbatore bus

6.45AM5.30AM7.50AM6.20AM9.45AM6.35AM10.50AM7.00AM1.15PM8.25AM2.05PM8.50AM4.05PM9.25AM5.00PM10.15AM6.55PM11.25AM8.00PM11.45AM10.10PM12.40PM

1.25PM2.20PM2.40PM3.35PM4.20PM5.15PM5.35PM6.35PM8.10PM8.20PM8.30PM 9.15PM

We reached the poondi temple at 11 and settled down to fight with monkey , which were ready to pounce on our breakfast. We straight off hit the trail at noon exactly.

Trail starts through the poondi temple. There is always a priest present there to check the devotees climbing up.

Rules : 1. No ladies allowed to trek. 2. It is a pilgrimage , so no slippers. 3. They wont allow ascend if its raining and too cold. 4.There might be wild animal attacks.

With the usual adrenalin rush , and with the aim to finish off the steps part , we bounded ahead with full enthusiasm. After 15mins into the trek i was fully drenched , feet was getting burned by the heat, knees and ankle were getting pounded due to the steepness of the hill and mainly cause of the coarse way they have laid stone step. Half my energy drained out then and there.

After an hour's trek reached "Vella vinayakar temple" . The walk was getting too monotonous, there was urge , a temptation to hurry, but with no breath taking views , and no noise laziness crept in and i slowed down to a even pace from then on.

To be truthful the never ending flight of steps really depressed me.

Further we chugged along to the first water point, which was a little more than trickle!! there was a naga temple en-route. Moving further on we ascended till we reached a flight of steps carved on a very huge rock portion of the mountain. Without the steps it would have been difficult to ascend or descend the mountain. This was a first view point where you can see the opposite mountain range , and the get to feel the chillness in the air.

Maybe 4hrs later we reached a point where there was a trishul fixed ! this is where for the first time you get to see the plains and mountain range, lovely. This place the end of 3rd hill, there was large number of bird species which bird watcher would love.

All through the 4th hill climb , i was like hopping around checking out the flora's . once i ascended the 4th hill , i got to see the other side of the range and siruvani dam's catchment area , and cloud's floating below me. from here on it was a walk on the ridge to cover the 4th and 5th hill.

This was an amazing view near 6th hill ! Cloud covering the 7th hill i am supposed to cloud and flowing down like a waterfall.

Finally reached the end of 6th hill at 6'o clock and took a dip in , everything gets freezed holy pond , which had knee deep water flowing. By the time we started ascending 7th hill cloud had entirely covered us, with the sun already packing its bag , we climbed the entire 7th hill half freezing , zero visibility dark night.

Now the peak was so close, yet we were finding it daunting and tiresome to reach the top. We finally reached up at 710 and were welcomed with tea cake and apple. Finishing which we tried to sleep, which was impossible in the chillness. Lucky we had the small cave behind the main deity Lingam temple.

Opened my eyes to a tranquil and serene atmosphere. Behold the sunrise and the place in the midst of clouds.we started off to snap pics.

After circumnavigating the temple , we started our descend down . Truly it was an humbling experience. Man building strong, but basement weaku !!!

Way down got to meet a sadhu who has been in penance and has not uttered a word in last 12 years!

A miracle how does that rock stay without much support !!

we took just about 3hrs to climb down.As soon as i came down near the poondi temple , ladies washed off my feet and asked for blessings. Other people asked me if i had bought down theertam(water) from above and drank it as holy water. Only then i understood the real importance people give to velliangiri.

This trek surely tested my laziness, endurance , motivation and the will power to chug along. in a way it was humbling too. No wonder this is a pilgrimage trail route.

We went to isha yoga , had a good dhyanam in dhyana lingam something.. i will do the blah blah on it in another blog.

Travel Log - Till Sep2011

2011-10-06T21:16:00.000+05:30

Serial Nos	Date	Mountain/Peak/Falls/Fort	Height/Distance	Region/places	With Whom

84	24/9/2011-25/9/2011	Velliangiri	12km	Coimbatore	CTC- Friends
83	23/9/2011	-	-	Coimbatore	Official Trip
82	17/9/2011-18/9/2011	Nagala-Eastern	15km	AP	CTC
81	15/9/2011	-	-	Namakkal	Official Trip
80	14/9/2011	-	-	Erode	Official Trip
79	7/9/2011	-	-	Salem	Official Trip
78	24/8/2011	-	-	Kutrallam	Official Trip
77	23/8/2011	-	-	Tenkasi	Official Trip
76	20/8/2011	Nagala-Eastern2	-	AP	School Friends
75	13/8/2011-16/8/2011	Biking	1400km	Chn-Munnar-kumily-chn	Gangsta Trippers
74	4/8/2011	Drive-Car	-	Thanjavur	Official Trip
73	3/8/2011	Drive-Car	-	Mayavaram	Official Trip
72	2/8/2011	Drive-Car	-	Nagoor	Official Trip
71	1/8/2011	Drive-Car	-	Pondichery	Official Trip
70	23/7/2011	Biking	-	Thiruvanamalai	Myself
69	16/7/2011	Nagala-Western	8km	AP	School Friends
68	11/7/2011	Drive-Car	1900	Madurai	Official Trip
67	5/7/2011	-	-	Rajapalayam	Official Trip
66	30/6/2011	Thiruparkundram	-	Madurai	Official Trip
65	19/6/2011	Nagala-Pirates	5km	AP	CTC- Friends
64	11/6/2011	Nagala-Eastern2	7km	AP	School Friends
63	28/5/2011-29/5/2011	Tresure Hunt	15km	AP	CTC
62	14/5/2011	Gingee		Gingee	Myself
61	7/5/2011-8/5/2011	Kurangini-Topstation		Bodi	CTC
60	26/4/2011	-	-	Virdhunagar	Official Trip
59	15/4/2011	Nagala-Western	4km	AP	CTC- Friends
58	12/4/2011	-	-	Thirunelveli	Official Trip
57	10/4/2011	Sabarimalai	6km	Sabarimalai	School Friends
56	2/4/2011-3/4/2011	Nagala-Eastern	15km	AP	School Friends
55	6/3/2011-8/3/2011	-	-	Bangalore	Official Trip
54	3/3/2011-4/3/2011	Nagala-Western	15km	AP	CTC
53	19/2/2011-20/2/2011	Venkatagiri	32km	AP	CTC
52	4/2/2011	Fort	-	Vellore	Office Friends
51	19/12/2010	Nagala-Eastern	8Km	AP	School Friends
50	3/12/2010	-	-	Sivakasi/Srivilliputhur	Official Trip
49	7/11/2010	Monsoon Chaser	400km	Pondichery	Myself
48	24/9/2010	-	-	Yelagiri	Office Friends
47	10/4/2010	Sabarimalai	6km	Sabarimalai	School Friends
46	24/1/2010	-	-	Coimbatore	Myself
45	23/12/2009	-	-	Pondichery	School Friends
44	11/12/2009	Kone Falls	2km	AP-Tirupati	School Friends
43	19/11/2009	Tada Falls	5km	AP	School Friends
42	12/11/2009	Nagala-Western	4km	AP	School Friends
41	26/10/2009	Nagala-Eastern	8km	AP	School Friends
40	15/10/2009	-	-	Bangalore	Myself
39	8/9/2009	Thommankuthu Falls	12km	Thodupuzha	Myself	http://limitzoneadventures.com/pdf/Thommankuthu_5_4.pdf
38	2/9/2009	-	-	Kalady	Myself
37	25/8/2009	-	-	kannur	Myself
36	19/8/2009	-	-	Calicut	Myself
35	15/8/2009	-	-	Kumily	School Friends
34	12/8/2009	-	-	Top Station	School Friends
33	10/8/2009	-	-	House Boat - Allepy	School Friends
32	28/7/2009	-	-	Ponmudi	Myself
31	14/7/2009	-	-	Nehru Boat race - Allepy	Myself
30	19/6/2009	-	-	Thenmala Dam	Myself
29	4/6/2009	-	-	Neyyar Dam	Myself
28	26/5/2009	-	-	Munnar	Myself
27	10/5/2009	-	-	Athirapally	Myself
26	18/4/2009	-	-	Allepy	Myself
25	3/4/2009	-	-	Waynad	Myself
24	28/3/2009	-	-	Mangalore	Myself
23	21/3/2009	-	-	Kasargod	Myself
22	16/3/2009	-	-	Dudhsagar - Goa	Myself
21	5/3/2009	-	-	Guruvayur
20	20/2/2009	-	-	Kollam	Myself
19	18/2/2009	-	-	Pala	Myself
18	16/2/2009	-	-	Kottayam	Myself
17	9/2/2009	-	-	Kannur	Myself
16	28/1/2009	-	-	poovar	Myself
15	20/1/2009	-	-	kolachel	Myself
14	6/1/2009	-	-	Idukki	Myself
13	1/1/2009	-	-	Trivandrum	Myself
12	9/12/2008-20/12/2008	-	-	North Goa - Beach	Myself
11	29/11/2008-8/12/2008	-	-	South Goa - Beach	Myself
10	29/11/2008	-	-	Panjim	Myself
9	27/11/2008	-	-	GOA	Myself
8	17/11/2008	-	-	Vaikom	Myself
7	14/11/2008	-	-	Kothamangalam	Myself
6	8/11/2008	-	-	Kodungallur	Myself
5	3/11/2008	-	-	Chertala	Myself
4	25/10/2008	-	-	Trissur	Myself
3	16/10/2008	-	-	Palakkad
2	10/10/2008	-	-	Fort Kochi	Myself
1	4/10/2008	-	-	Kerala - Ernakulam	Myself

Barbeque Nation - Chennai - Restaurant Review

2011-10-05T17:09:00.001+05:30

Barbeque Nation

T-nagar, North Usaman road
Landmark:Near Joyakullas

Barbecue with buffet.

Warning 1 you will not cross the barbecue starters , so forget
about the buffet part i told you.

Warning 2 , make reservation earlier, else you will
be sitting out for more than hour to get table.

Warning 3 , take ENO with you.

Warning 4 , go with friends and family and you will get big bil
its 550 plus tax per head.

It looked like a home stay apartment , but once i was
in i liked the ambience right away except for a live band
who were spoiling all my favorite songs :( . i particularly
liked the low table height ,the lighting and good service.

Vegetarian's , give it a off , cos u get only barbecued
pineapple n baby potato.

They start you off with starters and you never finish
see the end from it. They serve barbecued fresh prawns
chicken,mutton, and fish.

Each table has a hole in the middle, wher you are provided
with your own charcoal grill , with 3 different sauces additionally.
There is aso a flag , you put down the flag when you
are finished with your starters ,else they will be refilling
it again and again and again !

Buffet has the usual items, both veg and NV ,soup,biriyani,pulav
curries,salads and good variety of dessert !!

Go with good appetite and have your fill , its a good value
for money i say !

Statue's in Marina Beach

2011-10-02T12:49:00.000+05:30

While browsing , i came to know these are all the statues installed along the marina beach road.
I will try and verify the same with photos , when i do my next marina beach walk .

* Robert Caldwell
* Constanzo Beschi (Veerama Munivar)
* Truimph of Labour Statue
* Kannagi
* Subramaniya Barathiyar
* Subhash Chandra Bose
* George Uglow Pope
* Thiruvalluvar
* Dr. Annie Besant
* Kavignar Bharathidasan
* Actor Sivaji Ganesan
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Kamarajar
* M. G. Ramachandran

List Of Movies to be seen

2011-10-02T10:18:00.000+05:30

This list was shared by a person , i met in train when he came to know we have common passion for Cinema.

I have marked the one i have seen in green color. Other movie's you are welcome to share with me.

1. 17 again

2. 27 dresses

3. A beautiful mind

4. a love song for bobby long

5. A view to kill

6. Alexander the great

7. Almost pregnant

8. babel

9. Bachelor party

10. barabaros

11. Basic instinct

12. Beauty of the beast

13. benhur

14. Brave heart

15. breaking and entering

16. Bride and prejudice

17. Bridge on the river qwai

18. Bridget jones

19. casablanca

20. Collateral damage

21. Come september

22. dancing with the wolves

23. Dirty pretty things

24. Down with love

25. downfall

26. End of days

27. Eyes wide shut

28. freedom writers

29. Gladiator

30. Going steady

31. Gone with the wind

32. Gorgeous

33. Hamlet

34. Helen of troy

35. Hide and seek

36. History of the world i

37. Hitler

38. How to love a guy in 10 days

39. Importance of being earnest

40. Indecent proposal

41. Jfk

42. Just married

43. kramer vs kramer

44. Lawrence of arabia

45. Lolita

46. main in manhattan

47. match point

48. Merchant of venice

49. Moby dick

50. monalisa smiling

51. My boss’s daughter

52. My fair lady

53. Oliver twist

54. Omar mukhtar the lion of the desert

55. one flew over the cuckoo’s nest

56. Pride and prejudice

57. Roman holiday

58. Samson & delilah

59. Saving private ryan

60. scent of a woman

61. Schindler’s list

62. scoop

63. Serendipity

64. Seven samurai

65. Sex, lies & politics

66. Sexual life

67. Shanghai moon

68. Sleepless in seattle

69. Some like it hot

70. spartacus

71. Stealing beauty

72. Taken

73. Ten commandments

74. terms of engagement

75. the devil’s advocate

76. the english patient

77. the family man

78. The french connection i & ii

79. The girl next door

80. The great escape

81. The great train robbery

82. The honeymooners

83. The hot chick

84. The last temptation of christ

85. The life of adolf hitler

86. The meaning of love

87. The odyssey

88. the painted veil

89. The pianist

90. The piano teacher

91. The scarlet letter

92. The sound of music

93. The sweetest thing

94. The three musketeers

95. The time machine

96. To sir with love

97. Von ryon’s express

98. War and peace

99. What a girl wants

100. Where eagles dare

Success - A Pic

2011-09-27T21:58:00.002+05:30

Nagala trek - eastern entry

2011-09-24T01:50:00.001+05:30

If you look for the truth outside yourself,
It gets farther and farther away.
Today walking alone, I met it everywhere I step.

As George herbert said every mile is two in winter, it is also true that every mile is two if you walk with burdened heart.

I trekked that green route in the map given below.

View Nagala latest in a larger map

16/9/11

11pm - Ela say "Machi go and sleep" nope. not a wink, i was ruffled and disturbed.

17/9/11

2am - Bye- Bye home. it was welcome to ride hard in the rain to waran's home. A complete bliss.

3am - Wole up waran's enire house hold.Got struck by DANNY who seemed to like my scent :P

330am - Tried and navigated successfully to pick up foods

4am - Reached koyambedu as usual 1st ! and was not all bit suprised that people were held up

530am - Finally was off to nagala ------ Next time have to try kavarapettai-sathyavedu route to Nagala east.

8am - Enna oru pasi, paavi pasanga enna thavira yaarum feel pannala

930am - 1st pool. By now i had settled down to easy pace with too many clouding my mind. The suprise was nagala looked greener and pristine

10am - Just got an indication from ela to lead to dead end pool and i flew off, but it really didn help in clear my mind

1130am - It was a swift crossing , with one end bag ferrying and the other end pushing off the people over the rocks in tandem. i love the kutti falls, its in an optimum height :P

130pm - started off to gorge. nice easy pace made me relive all the memories i had 3,5,8 years ago. i never thought i had this many memories in myself.

330pm - Never was a trek i walked unconsciously, given the fact i am most accident prone. the boulders streams trees shrubs trail seemed an extension of home.

Reliving certain memories, however old they are, seems to be a pain. As in films there are truly some life turning incidents do happen.
Behind a CM of smile there might be mile of hidden pain.

My mind was completely off from the trek.I wanted adrenalin rush. I was ploughing through the water when others were hugging the rocks and when people were swimming i wanted to be i slippery and no foothold rocks.

But being around the active group of co trekkers i was just fascinated to watch them, what makes them tick and share same passion
I was in a zone where whatever happened around me was in an outer circle,nothing penetrated wall i had built around myself.

5pm - Breached the citadel, that how i like to call the entry into picnic pool. the stones resemble a citadel.
Mother nature has a good taste , a rectangle pool , falls , and camp area.I want to go back and spend few days alone with books and music for company. Essential thing might be rope and swimming tube and apples and few coconut buns.

7pm - With the cooking being done on one side, i was seeing the sky and the stars. i tried using the google sky map app , but no gps connect was there and lost interest. but i was able to eat half bowl bisibelabath

830pm - I was dropping down, i did not have proper sleep for whole week. I traveled to tada,erode,trichengode and came back to chennai on thursday,and friday it was a sivaratiri.

10pm - Last sentence i remember before falling asleep " ela do not wake me up for anything" , Vittangala, two drops of water fell on shankar , and he woke us up te da dha da

18/9/11

8am - Woke up and went up the citadel to relive. funny thing about conquering the citadel is you have to give up something.

830am - Fell into the pool and let fish clear up my dead skins. It seemed everything was dead in me.Fishes never left me till i left them. was it an indication that for me to let go all the memories?

10-5am - I am not able to remember anything particular, inner storm was raging. வாழ்கை அழகானது

but i do not know what to do with it :P

There was laughter all around be, that was infectious. This particular group impressed me by not having individual grouping. everyone made an effort to know about each other.

There was particularly one who went half crazy without knowing all the minute detail YARUKO

I saw someone as absorbed with some internal thoughtd YARUKAO

I saw someone who was constantly guided YARUKO

I saw someone who wanted to get back to family asap YARUKO

I saw some genuine admiration for nature from people YARUKO

I saw grit written in face of the people YARUKO

It takes courage to accept the help rendered letting go of ego. I saw. YARUKO

I saw someone running around great mormon YARUKO

I saw someone really engrossed in dissecting everything. YARUKO

I saw lots and lots of bruises YARUKO

I actually ate some solid food cos of someone YARUKO

I saw someone who went back to the spot where they fell YARUKO

I saw a 45 degree tilt water jumper YARUKO

I saw someone packed for one week trek YARUKO

I saw someone meditating YARUKO

I saw people eating together in one big group YARUKO

I was happy for Ela , the 1st trek he organised turned out to be successful. I have heard organiser's name whispered by linking them to their 1st trek. Its like in all the field , 1st attempt impresses.

September i don like you and may never forgive you. You have been consistent.

6pm - Happened to sit and watch sunset from a peak , sun setting down behind another peak. Sun looked all smiley n orangje. This trek i felt no physical pain , nor any exhaustion,maybe finally my body accepoted that i will keep subjecting it to all kind of nonsense.

Night had dinner to my stomach and hearts fill. This seems one of those treks where nothing went wrong cos of good people coming.

Nothing Changes

2011-09-20T20:54:00.001+05:30

“Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night"

It really seems worse to lose something, which you thought you had, but had not. Life has moved on beyond what i had imagined. On the other hand i don know what to make of the life and time i have.

The interest has changed from one to other , life seems so positive for me. Or its just i am happy when i am occupied.

Chugging along without a station to stop. But this head long pursuit of happiness will keep me on track.

Amen- 2011

Excellence - A story

2011-09-16T22:19:00.001+05:30

A German once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor, "Do you need two statues of the same idol?" "No," said the sculptor without looking up, "We need only one, but the first
one got damaged at the last stage." The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage. "Where is the damage?" he asked. "There is a scratch on the nose of the idol." said the sculptor, still busy with his work. "Where are you going to install the idol?"

The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high. "If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?" the gentleman asked. The sculptor stopped work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, "I will know it."

The desire to excel is exclusive of the fact whether someone else appreciates it or not. "Excellence" is a drive from inside, not outside. Excellence is not for someone else to notice but for your own satisfaction and efficiency...

--Unkown

10 Day YOU challenge - Day 2 - Loves

2011-09-10T10:05:00.000+05:30

9 Loves

9. Watching movies (Developed the like from 2008)

8. Bike ride , playing , strolling in rain

7. Taking picture (However nonsense they are)

6. Foods. Lots & lots of them

5.Trek and get lost in the woods. (which damn happens every time i trek)

4.Books & writing

3. Beach , Beer , Music and loneliness

2.Myself

1. FRIENDS

10 Day YOU challenge - Day 1 - Secrets

2011-09-09T09:02:00.000+05:30

Day 1

Ten Secrets :

10. September worse month in the year. Dad's death.Love, broke. Stopped speaking to my best friend.

9. Trying to learn a coding language .

8. I miss someone(thing) more than i thought i would.

7. I still watch only cartoon channel's in tv.

6. I don't know what i want to do with my future.

5. I believe i like to write.

4. Love the loneliness, though i still wonder y.

3. Thinking that i m good at everything i attempt to do

2. Me too photographer

1. I am most accident prone.