Swimming While It Rains

Never experienced that feeling before. Infact I don't know swimming. Rather I was walking through the swimming pool.

The water was chilled and it was raining heavily. But never felt the the rain because 90% of the body was under chilling water :)

Ani took a break and was clicking pics as per my request.

It's one of the biggest pools in south India and I was all alone in it. But enjoyed the whole time in the pool swimming walking around :)

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh....It was sooooo WONDERFUL!!!

What memory this brings back to me is below:

This takes me back to those days while I was doing the product implementation at Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) along with Nitesh and Madhu. Nitesh (I call him Nitesh Bhai) was my senior then and Madhu was my manager in that project. 

It was a wonderful experience there as we were working from the campus - Stay, food and all facilities were absolutely free. 

One day we realized that there's a big pool for the university and we took the permission from the senior director for learning swimming. Decision were sooo quick and we three were all excited.

But there was a big problem for me and Nitesh then. The trainer will not allow us to enter the pool without the proper swim suit. I still remember Nitesh bhai and I left office early on day in search for swimsuit for us. We roamed around a bit in the city to get that stuff. 

From the next day onwards, at 6 '0' clock, we went to the swimming pool to meet our trainer. There was other students too in the team. The funniest part was to see the whole team in the swimming suite. Nitesh bhai's suite was bit small, which made him look like an alien :)

We have to do a warmup around the pool before the class starts. That was tough. And it was wonderful to see few students who looked like cheese mountains running around :) 

Went for a week and then we stopped that as the work got mounted up due to additional requirements and all. However the memories still remains alive & fresh.

Day Out At Golden Palms

Thanks to Jesus - for the blessings, love and grace!

We knew about the leave on November 1st and planned for an outing on that day.

Initially, the climate in Bangalore was good enough for a trip - not so hot, but a cool and tempting climate.

Ani suggested shivasamudhram falls and I did the initial research on that place on my favorite website - TripAdvisor. 

Found to be having a lot of good reviews about the place and we confirmed the plan.

But on October 31st the plan seems to be bit uncomfortable, as the cyclon Nilam presented Bangalore with a rainy mood. It rained continuously for 24 hours which made the life to slow down a bit.

I came to know from several sources that the rainy climate would not be a nice place to visit the falls and started thinking of an alternative by 10pm.

Ani slept in between which made me to drop the plan to visit the falls. Did some research in TripAdvisor again and zeroed on Golden Palms Hotel & Spa resort. Not too far from Bangalore and impressed by the beauty -  I called them up for a reservation at 12:30 am - glad that the receptionists were nice and helpful.

Still with the impression that we are heading towards the falls, we started the journey. I did not tell her the plan change. It was a SURPRISE...

Reached the resort and we had a wonderful time out there. Enjoyed the whole day together talking and playing, enjoying the scenic beauty and food (must say -was awesome).

Highlight of the trip - A swim in the biggest swimming pool in Bangalore - All alone with the drizzling rain. 

WHAT AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE...LOVED IT.

Trying Out Some Clicks

Night View From The Balcony

School memories - So sweet it was!

We both completed our 4th standard education from VC Kumaran Memorial English Medium School, Kanjany. This happened 17-18 years ago. The sad part is that the school is not a school anymore. It’s a pay and park area for vehicles. The soul of the school got shifted to some other location, but left the nostalgic part there itself, that we could enjoy it.

For me, the school was a daily view during my pre-university and high school days. Whenever the bus pass through Kanjany, the old school memories strikes back. Friends, teachers, events...sweet!

It's going to be the second year of our wedding anniversary. Visiting the school was in the primary list, but could never do it because of 'BUSY' schedules.

I recently started thinking about what is this 'BUSY' word means. What makes my life BUSY?

Realization was great for me and productive. I had a bunch of things, which were not prioritized and wanted to complete with everything and the most precious ones were always left behind.

I started picking up the things from the entire collection based on our priorities. Family life and the prayer life came to the top from that perspective change.

Visiting the school was one of them. It would have done with ease but got skipped for a long time.

Anyway, I was so excited and so was Ani. She was running around the school and the class rooms, sliding her fingers on the black board, where we learned our first lessons from our dear teachers.

Wonderful and exciting moments.

And I have 100 reasons to thank GOD for giving me an opportunity to study in that school. REALLY I HAVE!

We had a weird thought while we were getting out from the premises. We were thinking – If we had enough money to buy that place, we would have done it. Don’t know, we are so attached to that place :)