Sunday, December 16, 2007

Cricket matches !

Well, I have been having a good December in terms of physical activity. Got to participate in 4 cricket matches for the Company team ( out of which we got a walkover in one of them) . I was the captain of the side due to the absence of a few folks and I have a killer record so far - something any captain might envy !! 3-1 - where 3 indicates the no of LOSSES and 1 indicates the sole win due to a walkover !

You might say this sucks . But the fact of the matter is, we have a team thats still coming together and considering that , I think its alright. However, I definitely am irritated that we lost all 3. Got to understand a few things :
1. Physical fitness sucks ! Not only mine , but pretty much the entire team.
2. Bowling in the nets is different from bowling in the match.
3. Fielding sucks again . But we have been improving !
4. Bowling has lots and lots of potential but definitely we never play to our complete potential sadly. Though today we had a really good bowling performance , that brings me to batting. Our batting sucks but as I said we are a developing team .

I got to understand a few things about myself. I am really passionate on the field and want my team to perform well . Also, even if I get injured, I swear and live by the team during the match. I try to lead the team from the front. These are some of the positives.

The things that I need to work on is to stay calmer during times when things are not going our way. Also , I really get pissed off when someone is not putting in the required effort and hence, the challenge is to keep the player constantly motivated and urge him to give it his best shot .

Today, somehow though our batting wasn't that great , we put in a dedicated effort with the ball and on the field. Hence, not as irritated. Well, I still think I will get one more shot at captaincy unless many people tell me I suck !!! So hope things turn out for the better soon , during the next tournament.

To my team - Play with a passion thats unmatched , Play with a positive mindset to win the game, Play with an enthusiasm thats infectious and finally, Play and enjoy what your playing !!


Adios...

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Thought of Dumb Charades !

Well, known as Janta in college to most of the other teams in college and in other fests, once we left college there has hardly been any DCs where all three of us have taken part together - Aravind, Narayan and I . There have been a couple of stray DC competitions where the missing person/persons were definitely missed and thoughts such as "Damn , he would have got this in 5 secs" or "Crap, I cant believe that he still cannot understand what I am doing , if only this guy was there .... " , but all that seems to be ending right now !!

As I heard around 20 mins back , there is a DC competition in the well known public place in Koramangala - Brew Haha this Sunday and man, are we all excited !! Just the thought of coming together and acting Dumb is enough to get the adrenalin pumping !! Using the good old codes, some of which one/two/or even all of us might have forgotten , blabbering at a break neck speed, thinking of loopholes in the rules of the game or even preparing in the last minute as the round is announced and last but not the least, going on stage when the name "Janta" is called out ,is a feeling thats unmatched !!!!

Cant wait for it . Hope its in the afternoon, as we might have a cricket match in the morning to play!! Whatever it is , Go Janta Go !!!!

Monday, December 03, 2007

Part 2 of the Trip

( For part 1 of the trip , read the post just below this one )

The next day I had breakfast with my multi talented , multilingual Project manager. This person is one active , hyper enthusiastic person ( I at times, look pale in comparison !) and can speak loads of languages and has lots of experience in South American countries ! Some of the languages he speakes include English ( duh! obvious :P ), Spanish ( alright), Italian , German and French !

The trip was really short to visit any actual monument or something of that sort, but we did visit , what I thought were really HIP malls ! My project manager dismissed it saying its nothing compared to any of the US malls !

A few things about Caracas :

1. Wonderful place , with mountains at the backdrop.
2. Traffic is as bad, at times worse than Bangalore.
3. Forget about surviving in Caracas without knowing Spanish! Gracias!
4. Politically, its very tricky . Let me not go into that.
5. Everyone seems to be so amazingly good looking . I have been telling so many people that Miss Venezuela would anyday be a tougher competition than Miss world .
6. People are hospitable but your not advised to go out alone if your not a local.
7. Vegetarians dont have too many options but you can eat something definitely.
8. The five star hotel was more like 2 or 3 star hotel.
9. People are extremely conscious about what they speak in public due to the situation there right now.
10. As Venezuela is a big exporter of Petroleum, the petrol price is really really cheap !!
11. Definitely worth a visit without an inkling of doubt.

My 3 days were over and soon it was time to head back .

Flight 4 : Alitalia again to Milan ! I have not sat in any flight where I experienced so much turbulence. It was extremely scary and i was just praying throughout the journey. Well, I seriously am shit scared of turbulence!

Flight 5 : From Milan to Mumbai. I got some company in this flight in the form of a lawyer from Mumbai who had won a Ten sports contest to watch a UEFA champions league match in Milan. She was super excited and I got a good overview of what to expect in Milan .
First time, i had met a winner of this sort !

Flight 6 : I was extremely tired by this time after having sat in consecutive flights. However, the last flight was highly adventurous ! The flight was a Jet aircraft that housed 50 people and the departure time was 3.30 am. Soon the flight took off, but then destiny had its own ideas. The captain announced that due to weather issues we had to return back to Mumbai.
As soon as we landed ,there were quite a few engineers who came to rectify the situation and after a chaotic time , finally we were asked to take another flight. We were all sure it was a technical snag but they didn't want to let us know maybe coz' we would panic! Finally, we boarded the flight at 6.15am and I was ecstatic amidst all my exhaustion by the time we landed in Bangalore close to 8.30am !
The funny part was there was another scheduled flight from Mumbai ( Jet again ) at 6.40 am and this flight also landed at around the same time we landed !

Anyways, all's well that ends well . But it was definitely one trip that was really short and filled with loads of incidents. More than happy to be back here safe and sound !

God bless. Amen .

Gracias ! Porfavore ! Agua ! - Part 1

As I embarked on a series of flights to Caracas( Venezuela), I was just hoping that the really short trip goes well.

Since I got to sit in 6 flights in 6 days, I was hoping that my travel as well would be good and uneventful. Let me describe the whole experience !!

Flight 1 : Bangalore to Mumbai - 90 mins - short and sweet. Never really realised how quickly the time passed by !! Good starting signs !

Mumbai has two of the most remarkable airports I have seen. What strikes me about the domestic airport is that its spick and span and its huge compared to some of the other domestic airports I have had the chance to see . ( Dont even think about the Bangalore airport !!)

The international airport is a really busy one as well and the service is very good and so is the speed at which things are done . At the immigration counter, they have 40 counters and one chap who directs you to which counter you should go !! Its incredibly fast . People are done with their immigration checks within a few mins , much much much ( much cube !) faster than say Heathrow or Sydney international airport !

However, there should definitely be a glitch somewhere right ? The inter airport shuttle sucks. Too many people and they are expected to stand in long lines ( one long line ! and I dont know how they can't/didn't apply the same logic of multiple servers for a single line like the other counters !! )

High time I move onto my next flight :

Flight 2 : Alitalia carrier from Mumbai to Milan . 9 hours or so. A highly uneventful flight as I was asleep for easily around 7-8 hours of the trip. Anyways, the concept of inflight entertainment is 100 years behind the current generation airlines !! Thankfully I didn't realise this on this flight !! Milan has a more traditional airport if I may say so but definitely matches upto international standards. What strikes you are the number of shops which
have the most expensive branded showrooms ! Well it was only then did I realise that Milan is pretty much the fashion capital of the world and hence the case !

Flight 3 : Alitalia again ( as it doesn't need to have transit visas !) but this time a 10.5 hour flight to Caracas. This journey made me realise the pain of travelling ! Firstly, I had a tetanus on my back a day back which began to pain , Secondly, the entertainment system wasn't great ( I fully realised it in this flight!), Thirdly, the turbulence was really high at times which did not exactly allow the passengers to peacefully sleep. There was one occasion where the flight shook and the height lowered and people in the flight , yelled out in anguish and shock .

The look on the old Arab lady on my left pretty much summarized the thoughts in the flight !

After a long arduos journey , during the course of which I felt this flight was going on and on and on , we finally landed to a thunderous applause from all the passengers !!

A painfully long immigration check later I landed up in a five star hotel in a taxi with a guy who did not know English ! I ofcourse did not know Spanish. We concluded that we were better off without communicating !!

Tired and feeling the pain of travelling so long, I crashed after a quick dinner ! More of Venezuela and the its beauty in part 2 !

Monday, November 12, 2007

My performance on Family day!



This was my performance a few days back . It was alrite, nothing too great but felt good singing in front of a huge crowd !! Please leave all your comments and criticisms so that I can work on it !Thanks to Aditya for playing the guitar !

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Reunion!


A week back, I read a post on the Baldwins orkut community, where Ajay,an old boy had written about a Baldwins reunion(both boys' and girls') that was going to take place on the 3rd of Nov. I suddenly remembered Kaushik telling me about such a thing taking place last year in Leela.This year it was in some unheard of place called Evoma. Since Mr Mohan Murthy also had just passed away, I really felt that we should somehow go there this year. Using the conference facility on the phone, I got around 6 of my best friends online and they were all very happy to respond positively to the idea and soon came Nov 3rd evening, when we landed up in Evoma after a long 2.5 hr drive(on lovely Bangalore roads, if I may add!) from Mysore road. 5 of us made it , Prashant Baliga, Kaushik S,Sharath "cow" Krishnan, Abhishek SR and yours truly.

We were right on time for the schools' songs! For the first time, all of us sang the Baldwin girls' school song and I was pleasantly surprised that the song was the same that I sang in Bishop Cottons ! The first verse of the girls' school song is the same as the Founder's hymn of Cottons! But anyways, the meaning of the song was lovely and then we proceeded to sing the school song of Baldwin Boys' high school. As we sang "Shout all hail for Baldwin high school" , we all felt really proud and there was this really good feeling. I was very excited to sing the song!

There were loads of people and the crowd kept building up inspite of the location of the hotel. There were proud Baldwinians (boys' and girls') from the 50s to the 2000s and it was great fun seeing, specially some of the real oldies !

After some tributes from some of the senior folks, one of them being the dashing,all white hair,tall, thin Air Commodore Ali with whom we had spoken on the phone, the dance floor as well as the bar opened up! The ball room dance was inagurated by a 1960s couple if I am right and it was a pleasure to watch them . Soon, Baliga joined in and at the end of the evening he almost was crowned as the "all generations" dancer as he shook a leg with a lady from the 1952 batch,56 batch, 63/64 batch, one of the 80s batch, one 90s and one 2000s batch ! We really wanted to make an announcement and find out whether there was someone from the 1970s out there !!!

A hilarious chat followed with Mr John Wesley, who taught us kannada ! We all fondly remembered how we used to love all the "masala" he used to add to all the stories ! Kaushik and I went on alternatively naming the stories and the books and he was all impressed, I must say !!!!

I completely forgot !!! COW !! I could never imagine Cow aka Sharath, dressing up the way he did yesterday! He actually went and bought an odd coat in the morning and was dressed very neatly for the evening occasion. These are far from the days he used to wear the same old Red striped shirt !! Gosh ! TCS has indeed changed him !

An even more hilarious conversation with Mr Danny Soanes followed, which also resulted in me having Red bull ! Since by then, the floor had opened up for free dancing ,we all went in there and since I cant dance for nuts, I just thought I will try my best to put in some energy and try to shake a leg or two. Few mins later, my friends concluded that I was high on Red Bull and one of them was wondering how much I drank!!! In all this josh, my specs landed on the floor with a bang and the glasses also splattered all over the floor ! But leaving that glitch, the dancing part was real good fun. Abhi and I danced the most while the remaining three took my case a bit later!!

Dancing , Dancing and eating and ragging later, we finally left that place with the thought of going again next year and also attending this year's sports in Dec ( Dec 15 to be precise! ). One of the highlights was the happy face of Mr Dinakar Wilson, the current principle who was so happy to share the 100% results in Baldwins after ages.

All in all, a total fun evening and we all had a kickass time ! Thanks to all the folks who turned up! And hope to meet more next year!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Sir, you will be missed

The experience I had in 12 years of schooling in Baldwin boys wouldn't have been the same without Mr Mohan Murthy. An amazing person, a very dedicated teacher who knew his stuff well, an excellent speaker and a compere par excellence. Its indeed very sad that he passed away on Oct 25 this year. It definitely has come as a shock to most people .The last time I heard about him was on Orkut when in one of the columns, some old student had mentioned that he was not keeping well.

He served the school for 30 years in various capacities, right from a teacher who taught physics and maths excellently to a vice principal (even when I passed out) to principal.

He used to wear a wig which got him the very famous nickname "Motte" . His way of speaking was absolutely unique and his dialogues are etched in every Baldwinian's mind. He was a person who did not like students just mugging for exams or going for tuitions and believed in them learning right from the grass root levels. "Kaka bondas" from the famous kaka shop or referring to one of the tuition teachers, or talking about going to Timbuctoo or even quipping one liners like , "You wouldn't have passed ICSE even after your son would have done it" was very much part of the entire package.

I was fortunate to have been taught Physics in 10th and he was fantastic. He was very good at conducting classes as he used to regularly ask questions to check whether students did understand what he was speaking about !

His compering on most of the occasions was almost like understood and it came so naturally to him. I heard he was going to be honored this week in the Old Boys' meet but destiny had other ideas.

You will definitely be missed sir. May your soul rest in peace.

Amen.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Travel story - 1

Hello all ,
I think I am having one of the most adventurous travels. Think of Passport collection at domestic airport and go to International airport, Drive in heavy Blore rain and land 10 mins before the gate closes and finally miss a flight is all part of this story!!
Just to elaborate, my passport was stuck in Chennai as the London consulate works from there .Drama restarted at 3pm India time on Thursday , when Austin called up and said, scan the authorization letter, sign it and send it back ( the order is wrong here, but thats ok , but this is the jist of it ).Did that and waited to see what happens. Finally went home and packed and was waiting for Travel agent's call around 6.45 when his Boss called up .
He told me that there will be a person waiting at the Mumbai Domestic airport with my passport and I need to collect it from him . This was the first part as I could not now use Jet from the airport itself.
Left home at 7pm thinking I would land at the Blore airport by 8pm and things would be ok for a 9.30 pm take off. But, rain gods completely opened up and you dont have to anyways talk about Blore traffic. Took me close to 2 hours to get there. Was very lucky to get there by 5 mins to 9 . I then realised that the flight had landed but ppl couldnt get down from it at the Blore airport due to the heavy rains.
Flight got delayed by 90 mins !!!! Action shifts to Mumbai . I land there at 12.40 am . After collecting the passport there from this guy there, I proceeded to the international airport. Looking at my tension, my dad asked one of his friends to pick me up . For a 2.15am flight , I thankfully landed there at the international airport at 1.25am. After a bit of running around ( as this was my first time in Mumbai airport) , I finally was done with all the formalities and boarded the plane.
8 and a half hour flight from London magically landed half an hour early !!! So I was at the London airport at 6.30am . Travel plan was that I take a 55 min Speed link from London's Heathrow airport to Gatwick airport and check in there again before 10.45am for a 11.20 am take off.
Alas, destiny had other plans. If someone from Britian ever complains about the slowness in the Custom area in ANY INDIAN city, I guess you can shoot them ! It was painfully slow for ppl with non British passports here. It took me close to 2 hours to complete the long painstaking custom clearance . I thought I should be wise enough to catch the Speed link and rushed out of the airport to stop 13 even without even brushing my teeth !
40 past 8 the speed link starts and I was very happy about how quickly I would reach that place. ( around 9.40) . But then what happened was just amazing. That driver it seemed, took us around a country side tour of London and since for some reason traffic was really bad today, it took us 3 hours and 45 mins to reach the Gatwick airport !!!!!!!! In between calling up British Airways and telling them that we were all stuck on the way and will be there soon did not matter to them as some zillion flights fly out every 5 mins here . There were 2 of us going to Barbados and both missed it . 2 ppl going to France missed their flights . A few more going to some other places also missed their flights . Just amazing !
Got it rescheduled to tomo morning and got a room here. Had to walk for 40 mins in search of food and by the end of it , hunger also vanished ! Well, London is a nice place full of old styled buildings and right now I am staying at a hotel very close to the airport . Hope to catch another long flight( rather 2 flights) tomo morning ! Will update you all in case anything else interesting happens !
Happy Ganesha Chaturthi .

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

TV reality shows

Since I have been taking a look at crazy number of reality shows both in India and Oz, I thought this topic really deserved atleast some modicum of space in my blog.

Why are reality shows in the market ? Coz' people are sick of daily Saas-bahu serials. But what is the result of one Reality show in the market ? Other channels want to compete and come up with other reality shows at about the same time on the same day. A great example of this right now is Indian Idol , Sa re ga ma pa and Voice of India. If I am home and end up changing channels, what do I see ? Sony TV - a "janta ka pujari" judge going crazy , Zee TV -
one of the judges talking about "Roti chahiye" and how the TRPs are kicking everything else on show and go to Star Plus , on VOI - which I fear has led to judges losing complete credibility with multiple judges standing up and shouting at each other ! Its ridiculous to say the least !!! But being a ardent fan of Sa re ga ma from early days, I prefer it as the singers atleast are really good!!

Well I thought things might change in Oz land. Here, I realised that there are more reality shows than one can remember in a week - more range , more variety and more spice !!! But I must agree, they are done more professionally and pay more respect to whats happening in the show.

The one thing that is common in all these are w.r.t the participant who loses or is eliminated during that week. Every possible thing is done in order to make that person cry and even faint in the studio at times. Occasional pledges and life history adds to the so called spice ! I agree that people want to see real things, but at times it seems so theatrical, your like -"Ah, come on !! Thats enough ! "

The next thing thats also common is the voting with general reminders from the hosts saying, if you dont vote, your favourite contestant will be eliminated !! Come on , how much can one guy vote ? If a person say watches 2 reality shows and likes 3 contestants each and since these messages are so costly -( 3 rupees per message ) , by the time you vote for one show and receive a very nice "thank you" message , your already thinking of your cell phone bill. And the next thing thats common is the decision of the judges in many of these shows over public voting . If their contestant doesnt get eliminated, things are hunky-dory else angry rants like public cant vote , they cant decide blah blah ...so if thats the case Sir/Madam , who asked you to keep public voting !!! Please remember not everyone is so rich to keep voting !

Well just to end this, you might or might not want to start watching a reality show on TV , but if you really want to, just choose one and if you want to vote, my sincere suggestion, for the sake of money, just support one contestant and anyways, dont vote too much and never feel guilty if your favourite contestant is knocked out !

Monday, May 28, 2007

Learning.

I wanted to take up some space for highlighting one of the things that I have learnt in the past few weeks and months.
Responsibility - I heard this funda which was, you need to be responsible . You cant control what comes to you but you can indeed control what you give others . So always , think twice before you talk so that you dont hurt other people. Well , I have been trying my best not to be sarcastic at times or hurt people and I can see some improvement in myself.

But at times, its very difficult to stop saying what you have to say coz the other person is hell bent on getting onto your nerves. There is another funda which talks about going ahead and speaking out whatever you feel like speaking out irrespective of whether you hurt the other person or not . Atleast it will relieve you of what you have to say.

This is a pretty interesting thought and I think either the first case or second case depends on who you are talking to . Some people take advantage of the fact that you are silent and go ahead and take advantage of that whereas some people prefer being open irrespective of the complexity or simplicity of the situation.

So finally, the learning is that people handling skills are important not only to get high customer at work but also in order to have a good level of relationship with that person.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Aquarium at the Darling Harbour

The aquarium in Sydney is one of the most popular tourist destinations . Since Somil , my colleague and a good friend was coming down from Bangalore along with another colleague , I was pretty excited . I was very desperate to have a view of this aquarium and finally Somil and I went there on a Sunday afternoon .

The aquarium is located at the Darling Harbour ,which is a beautiful place . It acts as the starting point for most of the cruises that take you around Sydney . It also has this aquarium and a wild life sanctuary and loads of restaurants which make huge business coz of the location . Basically, its an ideal place for tourists !!

After having lunch at a n Italian restaurant where I had vegetarian risotti and Somil had Burito , we headed towards the Aquarium after a short photo session at this picturesque Darling Harbour. This is my friend Somil - as he claims , " intolerably handsome !!"With this ,we went in and what followed was a .splendid and a sensational experience which is very difficult to describe . I have put in many of the pics that I thought were interesting and this post and the following posts shows you different kinds of fish that are present in this heavenly place . Here goes....
We saw loads oish and loads of them !! These were like the starters . All the small and the cute ones came first before they paved the way for the big ones !!!
Another variety which was part of the hordes of different kinds of Australian Bass fish . These are extensively found in the ocean. My friend was just wondering , rather his mouth was watering at the thought of tasting this. Shame on you Somil !!
This variety was called the Macquire perch. More plumpy than many of the other ones.
This was the Crocodile !!! There were a few crocodiles and alligators. There was a very interesting board which said that crocodile meat tastes like chicken as they have the ingredient white chicken which makes them taste very much like chicken that people love to eat!! Not the greatest of thoughts atleast from my perspective, I must confess !!
This was the fishy eel . Simply stunning to look at.
Voila ! There were even penguins there to our surprise !!! Super ones and so many that too !!
Here were some more of another variety of fish.
These were the seals from the outside ...
This was the view we got from the inside. More on the pathway and the lovely experience. Since it was a Sunday ,there were loads of people , mostly kids with their parents. SIMBLY beautiful !
More beautiful seals ....
This was the pathway where we could take a look at these seals and the sharks ( which are coming soon ....) . They have made it so beautifully that its such a tremendous feeling walking on this path and getting a feeling of being literally surrounded by all these amazing creatures - left, right , top ..... I was truly mesmerised by the beauty of this place.
This above pic is that of an shark egg !!!!! This is lit and there are controls here that you can move and zoom in and have a different look at this shark egg. Scary sight indeed !!

The above 2 pics are of sharks... We have just entered the shark world.....More pics to follow...
The above pic is of the sharks which queue up near the "ingress port of the interface" if I may say so . They all kind of wait for the fresh water that comes in and it was a lovely sight.
Forgot what these are called but different kinda fish .
Shark yet again , this time in another oceanarium.
More sharks !
This one was just above the glass covering and in this case, it was right above me !!! Surely,there was a chill down my spine !!!

Aquarium at the Darling Harbour - the end

Well right at the end of the aquarium is this master piece , which is just outside the oceanarium which has a good collection of fish that are present in the Gold Coast. Transparent windows , with a lovely greenish tinge on them with the water world on all sides is more or less a dream and I was on top of the world to have experienced this .
I was completely overcome by the beauty of this fantastic place :-)
Yet another pic :-)
As I already mentioned , this is on located at the Darling Harbour. The above pic you can see three things - the monorail at the back which runs from Darling harbour to other parts of the city, a couple of ships and my friend Somil.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Easter in Sydney - V 1.0

Our purpose for the day was to visit Blue Mountains. In order to get there we had to take a train till this place called Karoomba Station and then go and explore in the Explorer bus. Its kinda costly but worth every cent ! Blue Mountains is very much a tourist destination and since the hols have just started here, the rush was obvious. So here goes the description !

The World is small indeed. I was told by Nithyanand that Kiran who accompanied us to Bondi Beach was leaving today and another person by the name Praveen was going to join us. So when the 2 of them boarded the train at North Sydney , I saw this guy and viola ! He stays like 2 mins from where I stay in Bangalore and moreover , we have played cricket together ! But since it had been a while, I had not met him and had no idea that he would be in Sydney ! Nice surprise anyways !

The train journey was for around 2 hours and we landed up there at the Karoomba station at around 10.45am . My two companions though were totally shivering as it was raining and since this place was well above the sea level , it was realllllllllly cold out there !! Much more colder than Sydney ! They bought cool Aussie jerseys . Story to do with this coming up later :-).
As we reached Karoomba station , we were all very hungry and tried our hand at some Veg sandwiches and I can safely say it was the worst sandwich I had ever tasted in my life . Thankfully soon enough there was this place called Chocolate which offers various dishes made out of chocolates (Sorry pics are not put up here . We were too busy filling our stomachs !!) and some pastries and ice cream at this place set us up for the remaining of our journey.

The Explorer carried us through and the concept being that it would drop us of at whichever place we wanted( We had to refer to a map to see where we wanted to get off ) and then there were other regular buses coming in every 30 mins or so to get us in and to the next station.

We reached this stunning place called Skyway Eastern Anchorage and learnt that this was a good place to go around and trek too . First of several wonderful pics coming up.
The next pic was taken at the Skyway. The fog there was really dense and the place was hardly visible initially and as the sky cleared the whole place began to look more splendid ! By the minute. The Blue mountains as the backdrop,except for sometime did not appear blue coz' of the clouds and the fog but absolutely no regrets as it offered us some of the best views I have had in my entire life !!!!
This was the gorgeous deep ravine sort of thing that totally blew our minds ! FANTASTIC !
But the truth was we felt that it was God's own coutry !!!
more coming up....

Easter in Sydney - V 2.1

Another pic from another location . There were so many different kinds of lookouts. It was wonderful.
The above pic was that of the kinds of paths that we traversed through. It was really exciting to move through with so much of greenery around !
Me !!!!!!!!! This was special coz' this was the first time we had seen anything so beautiful . Guess the three of us were so excited that each one of us were kinda speechless for a while.
The pic above : A lovely sight indeed. The pic below : No comments though atleast the backdrop was simply stunning !!!
V 3.0 coming up !!!!

Easter in Sydney - V 3.0

The 3 sisters are what they are called and are they beautiful or what !!! The history behind this being that there were seven ridges initially and due to erosion these three remained. The aborigins consider this to be a symbol of sacred blessing . This can be seen from the Echo Point which is a famous tourist spot . The background as is visible is simply amazing and the weather conditions just added to its beauty.
This is the ambitious me with the three sisters :-).
This was yet another view from Echo point . No words to describe the beauty . Period.
Again me at Echo point.
More pics coming up.

Easter in Sydney - V 4.0

The scenery pics continue !! These were the 2 jerseys they bought ! These were the 2 guys in the backdrop of the stunning mountains behind. Later on, when we were getting of the bus to catch the train back to Sydney Central ,the bus driver told us , looking at their jerseys, "I think you guys will start playing cricket better now ! Reason : Coz; you are wearing the Aussie jerseys!!" We were like, this was one thing that was pending and that also happened ! Thanks to the Indian Cricket team :-).
Leaving the Indian cricket team behind, the above pic is in front of the Katoomba falls reserve. Not that great but since its situated right in that extraordinary place, the whole setting makes it simply a brilliant sight to experience.
Praveen and I in the rain again which was as predictable as the term mate in Australia !!!
The above pic was taken near the lookout dedicated to one of the English kings/princes.Dont remember who it was. The funda is that the entire set is a huge stretch of lovely scenery and guess it spans over 10s of kms. We thought we would walk through from one place to another coz' its such an awe inspiring sight.

This final pic was at the end of the day. Back at the Katumba station where it was crazily cold. But thankfully it wasn't raining. Just befor ecoming here, we had been to Leura village where we had some excellent food. We had Veg rolls, Veg Samosas and Veg Lasagne with coffee and tea. What do you find common here ? Yep, you got it !!! The word Veg.

The conversation that just preceded this was funny coz' we were not able to find decent Veg food anywhere around and when we found this place ,called the Gourmet, the conversation between the person taking the order and Praveen was thus : Does this have meat ? No . Does this have chicken ? No . Is this made of beef oil ? No . We look at each other ! Then tell her, Please bring it !! She was finally relieved that the interrogation was over and she was obviously happy coz' we gave her very very good business !!!

We all felt that people staying in this part of Australia are very lucky and blessed to be more precise coz' the place is wonderful to stay !!! And will surely add to their lifeline just coz' of the lovely environment.

As we came back in the train , the tiredness got to all of us and we were pretty much flat ! Now,I am also pretty tired to write all this . So this is it. Adieu till the next time !

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Bondi it is . part 1


I had been to this world famous Bondi Beach yesterday with my teacher's friend and his colleague. It was awesome - what with the beach being so huge and coastline filled with white sand and so many lovely birds around. It makes for an absolutely lovely sight. As usual , the following are some of the pics at Bondi beach.
The pic above is of me !!! Uglier than ever ! + equally scary :-)

The pic below is one I was really happy to take. So many lovely birds and I was fortunate to catch all of them just beginning to fly.








The next 2 pics again are taken out there in Bondi which is like any other beach ,a big tourist attraction.

The final pic offers a good background view of Bondi . By the way Bondi to be pronounced as Bon dye and not BonD and definitely not as Bond !!

part 2 coming up.

Bondi it is . part 2

These are the next set of pics .The bondi beach in all its beauty and grace.

From right : Nithyanand, Kiran and me ! The caps that the other 2 folks are wearing were given out during the 75th year birthday celebration of the Sydney Harbour bridge.

This is again a pic taken in the background of the rocks and the water.
One more !
These are the set of clouds that are hanging above Bondi when we were about to leave. This weekend was dedicated to Bondi beach and hence , will be called the Bondi weekend .