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21 December 2011

Another Sunday

Chicken curry smell..This is what comes to my mind, when I hear the week name - Sunday :)  Once back from the church, my moms special chicken currys smell welcomes me for the perfect lunch of the day. Even to the end of the Sunday class, chicken will start dancing in my head :) ...That was a nice child hood memory.  
 
Being in Bangalore the one place we enjoy our Sunday lunch is at Achayan's. That's a kerala restaurant. Ani likes that place very much. Steaming rice with real kerala dishes, it's a real treat for the taste buds.
 
Its tough to commute in Bangalore in public transport. Its costly and will hinder your free movement. That's the reason why we went for Mahindra Duro. It met all our requirements and the ROI factor, thats amazing.
 
We reach all most everywhere in Bangalore on Duro. The Freedom of Journey factor, we enjoys it at the best. I like long drives with Ani behind telling me the stories, cracking jokes, sometimes even fighting over conflicting talks. We really enjoy all these.
 
Service at church, followed by Achayan's lunch and wandering in the malls in Bangalore makes our typical  Sunday.

A Brisk Morning Walk

It’s after so many years I am trying a morning walk. I never got a chance since I joined my first company. This used to happen when it is the vacation time.

Ani is running on a tight schedule since she joined the new project. She is not getting enough time after the office time and Facebook farming. But I like the way she enjoys her sleep, calmly without any disturbance. She has to get up by morning 7. Keeps the alarm at 6. The alarm strikes at every five minutes till it hits 7.

Some times, she keeps the alarm at 6, as usual, one weekends. The alarm strikes at 6, then she will wake up and switch it off and with an utter satisfaction that she don't have to go to office and then her sleep. Wonderful. Whenever I see this weekend exercise, I realize the value of happiness  :)

While I was staying with four of my friends, I used to keep the alarm and what will happen is everyone else will wake up except me and they will be in a frustrated mood to crush my mobile. They never did that but. Thanks for their concern towards a friend.

Sleeping with all that happiness and peace is really a blessing. Have you ever tried thanking the lord for all his blessings, love and care and then sleep with that gratitude?
It will really change the way you live...


Indian Coffee House

Those who studied at CUSAT calls the place, "ICH". Thats the short form for the Indian Coffee house. For a visitor ICH will be a strange name and need to ask what it is.

But for all the students at my college, it was/is the bencmarking point. Almost everything has an ICH touch there.

Where is the Btech campus?, "thats left from ICH"
Where is the library, "thats right from ICH"...
Where should we stand for the bus pickup, "Infront of ICH".
Macha you lost five papers..."ok ok lets party at ICH".
Teacher, "where is Rajesh"...."I saw him at ICH".

The uniform of the suppliers at ICH may track back to the kingdom era, that my friend called one of them and placed an order, "Mr. King, one coffee here"...

That place will stay for ever in the nostalgic memory of those from CUSAT.

The Countryside Road Trip

Despite the fact that it is a Saturday today, we didn't plan a great outing. Rather we thought of spending more time at our sweet home and discovering the surrounded areas of our apartment. A small road trip.

We took the road less traveled and decided to go further until we discovered a flower farm, then a vineyard.


Ani was happy and she was busy clicking photos, while I was pondering about the book: Acres of Diamonds by Russell Conwell. I remember when Ani told me that she wanted to visited a vineyard. We planned a trip and went to Nandhi hills, traveled around 100+ kilometers, to see some deserted vineyards. But now we could see wonderful vineyard, just a kilometer away from our house and Russell’s book made sense to me once again.

An escape to the Greenery

Those who have stayed at vythiri resort; they are not going to forget that place. It was our honeymoon destination. An awesome place and I didn’t stop recommending that place to my friends yet. It s a perfect place for a runaway vacation.














Cubicle Decoration Challenge

When our Director announced this challenge, I was like "What am going to do". I always run away from these kind of activities. Not a good artist with decorative capability. At home, Ani is always mad for not arranging the things in the right way.

That is the reason why I told her that I am not going to do anything for tomorrow’s event. But she was not in an agreement with that. We rushed to Star Bazaar for a shopping. I was almost mad for this last minute shopping and was not in a good mood to think about a design or idea. Finally I took two puzzles which can be joined together to create structures and she went on to some chart papers.

It was her sister who first suggested it and, we decided to go forward with it: 'The Ocean theme'. And, Ani did designed and colored the fishes required to put into it. And finally, I got the third price in the event. Hmmm, that was unexpected. Thanks to two people for that: 'God' & 'Ani'...

Below are the main characters of my bay...


The two puzzles when joined became the structures below:
And my decorated cubicle had the below view:

Isaac With His New Set Of Gadgets

He bought a stroller, car seater and Kangaroo baby carrier. While we did the shopping today, he was enjoying the ride in his brand new stroller :) Did not like the kangaroo baby carrier though. It is too early for him to get into that space :)

Wonder-la Trip

I should say that one of the nice trips I have gone in an year. Oh my GOD it was fun!!!  Specially with Kunjachan and Arun chettan. We enjoyed the wave pool the most. That was wonderful...And the videos we took was awesome ones. I was recording the whole event while we were in the boat swing. Good memories!

Thank Goodness Its Friday!

And I am still at office waiting for the call from Ani :) 

Got some issues with her application I believe. Anyways I am not in a hurry and thought of writing something.

We are heading to Ani’s sisters house today. It’s three day long weekend. August 15th, Independence day on Monday. We have a Mysore trip to cover.

It was an ultimate party mood at office today. Now our bay is deserted completely. One of my senior colleagues is in the next cubicle. Other than that the place has fall into a deep silence until Tuesday.

I remember the tenth standard Mysore trip. It’s one good trip I always cherish.

Well lit Mysore palace at night, Brindavan garden, bird sanctuary and zoo are the place we have decided to cover. This is the first trip for Isaac too.

Expecting to see a huge rush at that place this weekend. I was trying to book a hotel and whichever I reach got it completely filled up.

Wanted to go to Lal Bagh too. Flower show is the happening event right now there. Have to make sometime for that.

Runaway Vacation - The Mysore Retreat

That was one wonderful trip all together. The best part was the UNO game sitting in front of the great Mysore Palace :) The stay at the hotel was wonderful. Clean and nice service.

First we visited the Mysore Zoo. Chettan being an Animal Planet fan, he enjoyed the visit. The next venue was the Mysore Palace. We dropped the plan to get inside the palace due to heavy rush of people. The whole Bangalore was in Mysore I believe. We were at the palace grounds till the palace was completely lit with light decoration. Tired of walking around for the whole day we went back to the hotel. Spend the whole time with Isaac: playing with him and loving him.

The next day straight to the Brindhavan Gardens. That was a nice place to visit. That was one good silent place. We spent some time there. By around 3 PM we started back to Bangalore.

Just getting ready for a game
Behind me: The Palace Gate
                                            Behind the cards: The Mysore Palace

Treat@ RoyalOrchid

Its the fourth year since they got married. GOD gave them a good life and took care of them till this moment. May GOD bless them abundantly even more in their life... And the treat is at Royal Orchid Hotels @ 12:30 PM






Awesome day out...Thanks a lot for the treat Chettan and Cechi

Rain Rain Come Again

The moment the train entered the Palakkad area I saw the person who owns the lower berth closing his window. However somehow few rain drops managed to hit on his face and that irritated him. I saw him wiping his face with a towel and telling his neighbor about the nonstop rain happening in Kerala. I sneezed for the first time at that moment.

I always loved rainy season. It rains continuously for days. And my mom used to say that it is the GOD who pours water from heaven which comes as rain. There was those days when I along with my brothers used to believe this story and looked at the sky with wonder.

Now when I think about that, it’s just another childish joke. It has lost its amazing factor.

My dad called me while I was at the Bangalore railway station. He said it is raining for the past four days continuously. And I hated the rain ever since I reached Bangalore. I own a scooter and the scooter owners know how painful the rain is. I was telling to my wife about the nonstop rain and she was also unhappy that we couldn’t travel much in that kind of climate.

By the time I reached Thrissur railways station, I got cold and sever cough. Humidity was too high that I felt something thick around me every time.

Daddy was there waiting for us and I told him that I will drive as I love to drive the car when it rains at the same time sympathizing to the people who traveled on scooters/bikes in that rain.

Despite of all the sickness the climate presented me, me and Ani had a wonderful weekend. We went to meet her old classmates. Went with my mom and brother for shopping and everyone was happy.

However after reaching back in Bangalore and got rid of all the cough/fever/headache due to the rain, I miss that place. I must say the whole place looked so beautiful after the rain. That strong missing feeling in heart to see the beautiful rain again has grown now. I have to wait for another monsoon next year.


The typical Kerala backyard when it rains


You must keep your wiper speed high to navigate



The rivers are so beautiful with the little kiss of the rain

17 December 2011

Weekend Adventure Trip

The trip was an unexpected one. It came in timesdeal.com and one of my college friend booked it for six of us, but only five turned up. Ani was excited about the trip as she loves the   adventure flavored trips. We were told to be at the pickup point by 7:45 AM. My policy is to   reach half an hour before the specified time and we reached there by 7. The got the call from   one of my friend to tell that the bus will be late by an hour. We parked the scooter at Jayadeva Hospital and walked towards the pickup point. On the way we bought one Bangalore Mirror newspaper and Ani wanted to play the Sudoku in it (as always).

Around 7:55, got the call from Nadheem. He told us to look out for a yellow Volvo, a big Volvo. Ani was playing some quiz in the newspaper and I was watching out for the yellow Volvo. Suddenly someone called me "savio", and that's Nadheems voice and I was looking out for the yellow Volvo skipping out all other vehicles. Then when I traced out the target it was a mini bus and the three companions were laughing inside. First slippage of the day.

The Journey took around one and half hour from there. We reached at the mountain top, on the Kengeri route by  by 9:45am. I was feeling so sleepy. Never seen those timings on a weekend. Had breakfast with Ani, Nadheem, Arun and Manoj. To the end of the breakfast session got a company. One mother and her son. Beena and Christy. They were also from Kerala. Yooo malayalees. We shot the usual first question, "From where in kerala?". From there we were one group for all the activities. 

The first one was high rope traversing. They had a rope tied from a bit elevated area to a tree to the lower one. They will tie us to a belt and we have to use our hands to pull ourselves to the lower area. That was a good one. The second was rappelling. As it was for kids and I was scared, watched it from the base. Never mind :)

Next one was Jumering. Have to climb up between the two rocks. Oops. Kayaking,  that was a good one. Ani enjoyed that ride.

Then we went to the main item. Lunch. That one I took part to the core. Was feeling sleepy after that. Then Christy came with the basket ball. We all tried to run away from him. But no way.Finally his mother took the role of the opponent and they played dribbling for few minutes. I do not have that stamina anyways. I and Ani watched it sitting under the huge jackfruit tree.

Next in the queue was shooting. Three rounds for one person. I hit two out of three along with Manoj and Nadheem. That was the high score for sometime. But some other guy broke it in between. I hate that guy.

Trekking was the final one. We waited for some time for the sun to come down. Around 6:30pm we started our trekking. Suddenly Ani gave a loud cry and everyone got scared. A dog passed by and it’s tail touched Ani. What a cry. That dog might have got scared.

Interesting thing was the dog was walking in front of our guide. We were wondering why it was running in the front. Finally we came to know that the dog was the real guide. The dog was running ahead of us looking out and clearing the perimeter. We could see the dog running in a cricle around us, through the thick forest and coming back to the trail and still running. I never seen a dog with this much loyalty.

But suddenly when reached in the middle of the forest, the dog gave a sudden stop. Guide was telling to it to move forward. No way! it was stand still for around ten minutes. We lost our patience and asked him what happened. He gave a terrific answer. The dog smelled some wild animal around. That’s the reason it was not moving. And he told that the area was famous for bears. Good God. Nice news. Even though everyone was scared, no one expressed it. But I was looking out for a good tree to climb. Christy was narrating the story of fooling the bear by lying like a dead man. Come one Christy, I can’t hold my breath for a second. That seems to be a bad idea for me. But Christy was confident. I prayed, Let his belief save him. I forgot about Ani, but I was confident that she would have traced a good tree in that time frame. That’s my girl.

Fortunately, guide showed us an alternative way. We continued our journey in that diverted path. 

Reached on the road in another few minutes. When I turned around looking out for the dog, it was not there. It might have gone back to escort the next team.

Christy's treat. Nice coconut water.

The return trip was the best. We were singing songs and complete blast. Reached back by around 10:30pm. 

Me and my dear then started our scooter journey back home. That was a good trip with lot of memories in the big yellow Volvo, a big Volvo.




02 December 2011

When things happens for the first time...



When things happens for the first time, that makes a bit difference. And our wedding anniversary along with my birthday happened to be in that category.

Wedding anniversary we celebrated with our parents. Simple function. But it was good.

And birthday was in Bangalore itself.

Thanks a lot for our dear ones for their love and wishes they shared.